Somewhere in LA
by itsaPEZwitch
Summary: Post-Grave Fic. **Chapter 12!!!** - There once was a shanshu that got translated wrong! A sister of a slayer that fell in love with the human child of a vampire and the end of the world, hellmouth style! Please R&R!!!!
1. The Binder

**A/N:** This story is Post-Grave and Post-Tomorrow, takes place mostly in L.A. but the gang will probably find their way back to Sunnydale sooner or later. This story is about Dawn and Buffy going to L.A. so that Dawn can Shadow a lawyer for school for a week or so (during the summer, counts as extra credit, more on that in later chapters) Please read and review!!!  
  


**Somewhere in L.A.  
Chapter 1: The Binder  
By: Hope**  


Dawn walked down the streets of L.A., looking up at the tall buildings as though she had never seen anythingn like them before. Well she hadn't, had she? All those memories of living in L.A. and of visiting her father there so many times since her parents had gotten divorced had never really happened. In fact, Dawn had never met her father...in her memories she had but accordingo to Bu-- "Stop it..." She said to herself, she was thinking to much again. It's what she seemed to do whenever she got nervous, and boy was she nervous today.

Out of all of the students in SunnyDale High, some law firm had picked Dawn to shadow one of their lawyers for a week. Buffy didn't like the idea at first, not being comfortable with Dawn being away for that long but was later able to convince the manager at the Doublemeat to let her take about a week and a half off, so she and Dawn would have some sister time in-between all the business.

"Are you going to go see him?" Dawn had asked the night before she and Buffy left.

"What are you talking about Dawnie?" Buffy replied, continually stirring her hot chocolate with her index finger, even though she had known exactly what Dawn was talking about. In fact, that was what had been on her mind ever since she decided to go to L.A. with Dawn...instead of asking her father to keep her for the week.

Buffy hadn't spoken to Angel in the past year, let alone seen him at all. And he had made no attempt to contact her either, as far as she had known at least. 

"Angel, and you know what I'm talking about." Dawn said, slumping back into her chair, looking out the window to the front yard.

"I...I don't know yet." Buffy had replied. The conversation had stopped there, neither one wanting to revisit ugly memories of Angel....or the happy ones. Dawn had known that Buffy had spent the past few weeks thinking, alot. Willow was in England with Giles and Xander was spending most of his time either at work (his crew was rebuilding the old highschool) or at the Magic Box, slowly trying to get Anya back. And Spike....no one knew were Spike was. The only thing they knew was that he had asked Clem to look after his crypt for him while he was gone.

Dawn wasn't even sure if she wanted to know where Spike was, or if she wanted him back. Xander had told her what he did....tried to do to her sister. She didn't believe Xander of course, she had to bring the subject up with Buffy, making her tell her every detail of what had happened. Although Spike had hurt Buffy that night, she didn't totally blame him. Buffy felt that it was almost as much her fault as it was his, saying that she had led him on and given into him for so long that he had expected her to give in again.. 

- - - 

"Excuse me." A thin, model looking girl said as Dawn was shoved into her, causing her to lose her balance and fall onto the ground, while dropping everything that she had been holding.

She stood up, realizing that a pain was shooting from her left knee. "S-sorry." Dawn replied, not even looking up but quickly bending down to pick up what had been knocked out of her arms when she had collided with the girl. She was able to pick up two of the folders that had dropped, along with their scattered contents before anyone had stepped on them but she found that her binder had been knocked out of her reach. 

"Damn." Dawn cursed under her breath when she saw another hand reach out for her binder and pick it up.

She quickly stood up, ignoring the new pain in her left knee from being knocked down. Dawn had spent too much time working on everything that was in that binder to let it be taken by some asshole. So before she even saw who took it she was willing to chase him, tackle him, almost anything to get her binder back. While Dawn was thinking all of this, deciding how she would be able to track him, get him and still be able to get back to the hotel on time, (Buffy had spent the few weeks before they left training Dawn, like she had promised.) she didn't even realize that the man that had picked the binder up was standing in front of her, offering it back.

"Hello?" Dawn raised her head to look at him. He was absolutely gorgeous, there was no mistake about that. He looked around her age, maybe a year older. It looked like he had just gotten up out of bed, judging by his messed up brown hair. He half smiled at her when he said hello. Dawn's heart skipped a beat when she looked into his clear blue eyes and saw that he was looking back at her with a stare so intense but gentle and innocent at the same time. "I think this is yours." He smiled again, handing her the binder.

"Y-y-yea! This, this binder, it is mine, I-I dropped it, got these but that..." Dawn realized that she was beginning to babble and that she was making an ass out of herself. "Thanks." She said as she took it out of his hand.

He laughed a little. "Noo! You're supposed to laugh at me after you leave me here alone and embarrassed, doing that beforehand is just cruel." Dawn said, finally recovering her wits.

"Oh I'm very sorry, I didn't know that was a rule here." He replied.

"I was joking." Dawn said, catching that he had sounded serious.

"Oh..." He said, scratching his head while looking embarrassed. "Umm...I'm Stephen." He said, hoping that this was the right way to do an introduction. He hadn't really had that much contact with girls and he thought that he could sense something good about this one. Something powerful.

"I'm Dawn." Dawn said, both surprised and excited that he had asked for her name. "Well, I have to go, my sister, she'll get worried." She said, smiling. "Alright, um, nice meeting you, Dawn." Stephen replied.

Dawn took a step with her left leg and realized that the pain in her knee was almost unbearable. "AH." She began to fall down but Stephen (who she thought had been walking away) caught her before she hit the ground. "Ow." Dawn said quietly as Stephen lifted her up in his arms, holding her.

He walked her over to a nearby bench and set her down, examining her knee like he was a doctor. "Sorry about that, I'm fine, really. I'm sure it was just one of those...." Dawn was saying as the slowly tried to stand up again, but as soon as she put major weight on her knee, pain began to jolt through her whole leg. "one time things?" Dawn said again, slowly sitting back down. "I don't think you'll be able to walk on this today." Stephen said, still examining the knee. He looked up at Dawn. He couldn't believe that he had gone all of his life without seeing something as beautiful as she was. Her hair shined in the light and ran down past her shoulders. "I....I could help you back to where you were going." He added.

Dawn took a few seconds to consider this. Buffy would almost kill her if she found out that she had gotten hurt on her first day in L.A. But then again, Buffy would also almost kill her if she had a guy, a totally gorgeous guy, walk her back. _Well if I'm already going to be in for it..._ she thought. "That would be great, if, if you can of course, I don't want to be a bother or anything."

"No, its fine, I don't have to be anywhere today anyway..." He said to her. "Where are you heading?"

"Oh, the Holiday Inn on the corner there." Dawn said, pointing to the large building on the corner of the main street. 

Stephen then helped Dawn get up, having her put her left arm around his shoulder and let him carry some of the weight. He held her books in his other arm. They made it to the hotel with nothing said, they both seemed to be too shy to bring up a new subject.

Stephen opened the large doors to the hotel, going in first then holding them open for Dawn who was now hopping on one foot. "DAWN?" Stephen heard someone scream from across the lobby once they had both gotten inside.

He turned to see a woman that looked like she was 20 years old run up to Dawn. "Dawnie, are you ok? What happened? Who's that that brought you here? Why were you gone so long?" The woman leashed out so many questions at Dawn that neither Dawn or Stephen could even count how many, one just kept coming after another until she had run out of anything to say at all.

"Buffy." Dawn said, holding onto her sister's shoulders. "I'm fine, some as--moron knocked me down on the sidewalk and I hurt my knee. Stephen here." Dawn said, gesturing for Stephen to come closer to them. "Helped me here because I couldn't exactly walk on my own."

Buffy had seemed to calm down a little when she turned to Stephen. "Thank- - -" She stopped in mid-sentence when she had looked at him. He looked so familiar to her. She shook the feeling that she knew him from somewhere off and continued to thank him, telling him that she was so happy there was at least a decent teenager in the city. Stephen just shrugged, he had been raised to do that so he saw nothing else that he could have done but help her. 

Buffy turned back to Dawn. "We need to get you back to the room, hopefully the knee will heal quickly, and Fred and Gunn, two friends of Angel's are coming here." Dawn nodded to Buffy and turned to say goodbye to Stephen. But he was gone and her books were on a chair next to where they were standing. 


	2. Shiney New Soul, Missing friends and Mee...

**A/N:** Sorry about how short chapter one was! This one's a bit longer!  
  


**Somewhere in L.A.  
Chapter 2: Shiney New Soul, Missing Friends and Meetings.  
By: Hope**  


Buffy walked over to the chair to pick up Dawn's books. "Not very social." She remarked as she helped her sister walk over to the elevator and then back up to the room.

Dawn was upset that he had left without saying anything, and *why* didn't they hear the door open? Dawn was hoping that he might come back later since he knew where she was staying but she doubted it, why would anyone be interested in here? She was just an old, shiney, key-like thing turned sister of the slayer. There was nothing about her that people would find that great.

"Ooh! T.V.!" Dawn said excitedly as they entered their hotel room. It was a relatively small room but it would do for the two while they were staying there, there were two queen sized beds, two dressers, a phone, a desk with a chair and a television set. "Does it have cable?" Dawn asked while hopping over to the nearest bed.

"I think it should." Buffy said, still sounding distracted as she put Dawn's books and things down on the desk.

"Buffy, are you alright?" Dawn asked, noticing how her sister was staring off into space again...just like she had when she had first come back.

Buffy continued staring at the wall for a few seconds until Dawn's words had registered in her head. "Y-yea, I'm fine Dawnie. But...Angel's missing." She said, not knowing any other way to break the news to Dawn. Dawn watched her sister try and find the words to finish the sentence. 

"Buffy, what else?" Dawn could tell that Buffy was having a hard time with this, she seemed to have a hard time talking about anything that had to do with Angel since she came back.

"Cordelia's missing as well....and Dawn, Angel as a son." Buffy could see the look on Dawn's face go from being worried to confusion.

"A WHAT?" 

  
- - - - - - 

  
Pain shot through Spike's body as he fell onto the cold, damp floor of the African cave. It had been weeks since the demon had bestowed the gift upon the Master Vampire and yet Spike hadn't once left the cave since.

Spike didn't know that it had been weeks though, to him time didn't seem to matter anymore, he would live eternally and suffer for eternity. _What the bloody hell was I thinking? _he thought to himself, as he struggled to stand up. His arms and legs were tired and weak from the lack of blood and he was sure that he had lost a few pounds since leaving Sunnydale. But that didn't bother him that much. The fact that he was starving didn't even seem to matter to him anymore. The only things that he was able to think of were the hundreds, maybe thousands even, of victims that he had had since he had become a vampire. They all haunted him, not only in sleep, but while he was awake as well.

His soul was greatly upset this whole time, not knowing what was wrong with him, or how any of that had happened. But then he received the memories of Sunnydale, of all the people he had met there, but above all else, memories of Buffy. Memories of him holding her, comforting her, even just talking to her was enough to sooth all of the aches and pains that he was experiencing from past victims. But then he saw it. He saw what had forced the demon within him, the demon that was still present, almost dominint inside of him, to leave Sunnydale and seek out his soul.

"NOOO!" He screamed, throwing himself back against the wall once again, hoping that it would relieve him of the memories that now scarred him deeper than any physical blow could. He slowly calmed down as a new emotion, something that he wasn't very familiar with began to run through him. Courage.

The demon within wasn't going to give up so easily. "Angel." The name popped into his head out of nowhere, but he realized that it was the right name. "I guess Peaches is going to be good for something." He said, talking to himself as he once again stood up.

Spike wouldn't take this soul thing the way Angelus had. Angelus's soul had changed him, made him betray the ones that had loved him, or who hung with him at least. But Spike wasn't going to do that. He wasn't going to pity himself, lie in the shadows and wait for the end of the world, he was going to do something with this soul and no one could bloody stop him.

He tried to push the memories of his victims away as much as he could as he gathered up his strength to make it out of the cave, and to find some blood. 

  
- - - - - 

  
"C'mon Gunn!" Fred yelled up the stairs of the hotel to her boyfriend. It had been two weeks since both Angel and Cordelia had gone missing, and they hadn't seen Connor since either. Lorne was in Las Vegas but when they had called he said that he would try and help by getting information out of demons and contacts, but he never said anything about coming back. Connor made him too nervous.

"Alright, alright." Gunn said, making his way down the stairs, wielding a nice battle axe that was concealed inside of a big black bag on his back.

"About time! We've never met Buffy and I want to make a good impression!!" Fred said honestly. She had been wondering what Buffy was like ever since Angel had left to meet her and in coming back he had revealed nothing to her, or anyone for that matter. Cordelia wasn't really great at describing Buffy either, the most she got out of her was that she was the slayer and when Fred had asked if she was pretty (to Angel's standards) Cordelia looked at her like she was mad. 'She had NO idea how to moisturize,' was all that she said, after that the subject had to be dropped due to Cordelia's surprise party.

As soon as Gunn reached the bottom of the stairs, Fred had started making her way out the door, heading out to the car. (Gunn had gotten one of his friends to lend him his jeep when Angel had disappeared with his car.) "Whoa, whoa, whoa." Gunn said as he jogged to catch up to Fred. "What's with the rush?" He asked, almost already knowing the answer.

"We're the only people here Gunn!" Fred said, continuing to walk out the door. "Angel and Cordelia are *both* gone and we have no idea where Connor is. Buffy might be able to help us!" She said as they both walked out the door.

"Yea I get that, but that doesn't mean that we have to be an hour early to meet her." Gunn said, smiling as he pointed to his watch.

Fred stopped and smiled at him. "I guess your right." She said, trying to shrug off her stress. 

"Of course I am." He said, still smiling. "Now how about we get some tacos." He put his arm around Fred as she leaned her head on his shoulder. "It's just....they could be hurt, and they would find us if we were missing, I just don't want to lose anyone." She said as she began to calm down from all of the rushing she had done before.

"I know." 

  
- - - - - 

  
"Why hello Lilah." Gavin said while passing the lawyer in the hallway of Wolfram and Hart. Lilah ignored his greetings and continued walking to her office, Gavin turn around, following her and grabbed the door to her office before it shut. "We aren't in a good mood, are we?" He asked, laughing at her. Lilah sat down at her desk and looked up at him. "Well you don't have to have a little brat shadow you for a week." Lilah replied when she looked back down at her desk, taking out a folder and pulling out all of its contents.

"Ah, so you were chosen for this years charity case." Gavin said, pleased with this new information.

"Yes, I wa- - -" Lilah stopped mid-sentence as she began reading through the folder's contents. After a minute of silence she looked back up at Gavin and smiled. "Well actually this might be an advantage for me." She said happily. Gavin's smile dropped and he walked out of her office, mumbling something under his breath. Meanwhile, however, Lilah looked down at the folder on her desk. 

The name that she saw was "Summers, Dawn." from Sunnydale California. Hellmouth city. "The sister of the slayer. Now this could be interesting." She said to herself, not able to contain her excitement.

She pressed a red button on her phone. "Yes, Miss Morgan?" The voice asked on speaker phone. 

"Put me through to the partners."

"But Miss Morgan, I'm not su---"

"I said put me through. They'll want to hear this." Lilah said, once again smiling at the information that she had discovered. 

  
- - - - - - 

  
The doorbell rang to the small apartment and Justine quickly got up, grabbing a knife and carrying it with her as she walked over to the door. "Hello?" She asked as she began to unlock the door.

"Justine, its me, Stephen." Stephen anxiously said, afraid that by some strange chance of fate someone from his father's office would see him.

"Stephen you scared me." She said as she put the knife on the table next to the door and opened the door for the young man. "Besides, didn't you have a key?" Justine asked, examining the boy.

"Lost it." Stephen said as he walked into the small kitchen area, taking some water from the fridge. "Had to help a girl get back to her hotel." He added, although he had lost his keys fighting off 3 vampires from attacking a frightened couple the night before.

"Oh." Justine sighed, re-locking the door and going back to lay down on the couch.

Stephen didn't want to tell Justine about the girl he had met. He thought that her sister (the woman had looked to young to be her mother) might have some relations with his father but he liked Dawn and he wanted to be able to see her again, since it wouldn't really matter anyway, he had already taken care of his father.

The monster was gone from his life, for good. 

  
- - - - - - 

  
Buffy sat alone in the lobby of the hotel while Dawn was probably still getting ready up in the room. She had promised that she would be down in a few minutes though, which was good, Buffy felt like she needed a little more alone time. Buffy had expected that Angel would move on with his life, just like she had, but she never thought that....first of all it was impossible but, she would never imagine that he could have a son.

Although she was shocked by the news, she felt sympathy for Angel, hearing the story of how it all had happened. Westley had betrayed Angel and the rest of his friends by taking Connor away, but he had thought that he was doing that to save the baby. Even though that was true, Angel had still pushed Westley away, stripping him of all of his friends.

Buffy felt that if she thought about it one more time then her head would explode. She couldn't even think of where Angel or Cordelia would be, or anything else for that matter. But she had made a promise to Dawn, she had promised that things would gett better for them and she was going to do anything to be able to keep that promise.

Buffy had been sitting in the lobby, waiting for Gunn and Fred for 10 minutes (she had come down early) when Dawn snuck up behind her, or tried to at least. Long before Dawn reached her, Buffy had heard her walking as quietly as possible towards her. When Dawn was reaching to put her hands on Buffy's shoulders, Buffy grabbed her arms and gracefully flipped her over so that her butt hit the ground, but so that she wasn't hurt.

Dawn turned and looked at Buffy (who was smiling) with a pout on her face. "You're no fun." She said as she crossed her arms in a childish manner and sat beside her sister. 

"I guess that your knee's feeling better?" Buffy asked her sister, noticing how she wasn't limping or hopping anymore.

"Yea!" Dawn replied happily, "I guess that some ice and a little rest was all it needed!" She said smiling. "So they're not here yet?" Dawn asked, searching the lobby for the two friends of Angel, even though she had no idea what they looked like.

"Nope. Just me here." As soon as the words left Buffy's mouth, the door opened and in walked Fred and Gunn who were holding hands like a happy couple. "Thats them." Buffy said while pointing towards the pair.

To Dawn's surprise, one of them was a girl. She was petite with long brown hair and brown eyes. She was wearing faded jeans and a blue tank top. The man next to her (who was holding her hand) was tall, probably about 6'3" maybe a little taller, well built and very handsome, but still no comparison to Stephen, the boy that had helped Dawn back to the hotel only hours ago. (Yes, she was *still* thinking of him.) He was wearing a pair of khakis and a green muscle shirt.   


As soon as they had walked into the hotel, Fred saw the two girls sitting in chairs over on the right side of the room. The older one, who she was guessing was Buffy, had blonde hair hair that was just above the shoulders. She looked like she couldn't be anymore than 5'4", if she was even that tall. She was wearing a pair of faded hip-huggers with a white v-neck shirt. She was prettier than Fred had thought she would be.

The younger girl that was sitting next to her didn't look like she could be any older than 16 years old, she had long dark brown hair that ran past her shoulders and was wearing denim shorts with a red tank top. She must have been Dawn.

The two girls stood up and walked up to the two people that had just entered, each certain of who the others were. "Hi." Buffy said, starting the conversation. "I'm Buffy, and this is Dawn, my sister." Buffy said, looking at Dawn.

Dawn waved at the two, now wondering what was in the black bag that was on the man's shoulder. "Hi, I'm Gunn." Gunn said, shaking Buffy's hand and winking at Dawn. "And this is Fred." Fred waved with a shy grin.

"What's in the bag?" Dawn asked, pointing to the bag on his shoulder.

"Dawn!" Buffy said, thinking that Dawn had been rude.

"Oh, this?" Gun said, taking the bag off of his back. "This is a birthday present for Buffy. I guess Angel never got around to sending it, what with Co--with everything that was going on." Gunn said, handing her the bag.

He almost expected her to drop it, it was even hard for him to carry but to his surprise he saw that the slayer easily lifted it up and placed it on her shoulders. "Although, I wouldn't open it up in here." Fred said, looking around the large room. "Some people might not be to thrilled with whats in there."

"Right." Buffy said, not really knowing how to talk to them. "We should probably go back to Dawn and me's room, its not that big, but its alot more private than out here." Buffy said, noticing the large amount of people walking in and out of the hotel. 

"Right." Fred and Gunn both said as they followed the slayer and her sister to the elevator. 


	3. More Meetings and Hookers

**A/N:** Omg! Three chapters in three days! I must be crazy!!! And they're actually good sized!! :) Please R&R!  
  


**Somewhere in L.A.  
Chapter 3: More Meetings and Hookers  
By: Hope**  


The four made their way up to the 12th floor and into the Summers' room in silence. Once they had gotten inside, Dawn sat down in the desk chair, looking up at her sister who returned a look to Dawn, a look showing that she didn't want her to be a part of the conversation.

"This is my problem as much as it is yours!" Dawn exclaimed, not hiding her anger for once again being treated as a child.

"Fine." Buffy said as she turned away from her sister and closed the door, Fred and Gunn sat down on the couch that was at the end of the room and across from the desk. There wasn't one in there before because Buffy had found that the couch they had in there was broken, so she had requested for them to get a new one. Walking closer to Fred and Gunn, Buffy sat down on the bed closest to the couch and desks.

Finding that both of the Summers girls were staring at the remaining members of the fang gang, they began to tell the whole story of what had happened the past year. Fred noticed a pained look on Buffy's face when they told them about Darla, and how she had slept with Angel the year before. But when Buffy saw that other people noticed her pain, her face instantly turned emotionless. "And the last time that we saw him was when he was going to go meet Cordelia..." Fred said, finishing the long story. "We don't know where though." She added. 

Dawn, Fred, and Gunn all turned their eyes to the slayer, who was staring at the floor. "When was the last time you saw Connor?" Buffy asked, looking up. She tried so hard to fight back tears. Buffy may have had lovers since Angel had left Sunnydale but she never expected him to....she knew that he was entitled to move on and that he should, but she never expected it. Especially with his sire, or Cordelia.

"Ummm...." Fred began to think but then opened her mouth as though she was going to object. "No, Angel and Connor patched things up! We saw it! They were - - -"

"He went out about 10 minutes after Angel left." Gunn interrupted, seeing what Buffy was saying and almost agreeing. Fred looked at him like she was disapointed in him for telling, as though it was their job to protect Connor. "Fred, we have to tell her everything we know, besides, it *is* a little wierd that he disapears right after his old man, especially since neither of them have contacted us since." Gunn said.

Fred nodded in agreement and looked at Buffy. Everyone had seemed to forget that Dawn was in the room once they had started their story about a half-hour earlier so the teen was making sure that she remembered everything that they said, she wanted to prove to Buffy that she was able to take care of herself by helping to save Angel. 

"Do you have any idea where he may be? Have you checked the hotel where Holtz was staying?" Buffy asked.

"We checked every place that we could think of, for the both of them." Gunn said. "Same with Cordelia, you think this all could've been linked?" Gunn asked the slayer.

"Sounds like it." Buffy replied, now eyeing the bag that she had thrown on her bed when they had entered the room. 

Standing up, she walked over to the bag and unzipped it, finding a large battle axe that looked as though it was hand made. She picked it up easily, admiring it. "He made it himself." Gunn said from behind her.

"Well if what you've been saying is true, then this might be handy." She said. "Buffy." Dawn stood up from the chair, reminding everyone that she was there. Buffy turned to look at her sister who was holding her books in her hand. She pointed at her books, trying to make Buffy remember what else they had to do that day.

"Oh!" Buffy said, finally remembering. She turned from Dawn to face Fred and Gunn who were now standing up, getting that they would soon have to leave. "Dawn has this thing for school, the reason why we're hear actually." Buffy explained. "I have to drop her off there in...." She glanced at the alarm clock next to her bed. "Fifteen minutes, after that I could come and meet you two somewhere, maybe a local haunt would know where he was?" Buffy asked, her mind still on the fact that Angel was missing.

"Yea, that'd be good." Fred said as Dawn excused herself and walked into the bathroom to get ready. "Could you meet us at the Hyperion after you drop her off?" She asked.

"Yea, that'd be fine." Buffy said.

Fred and Gunn walked over to the door and the three people exchanged goodbyes and made plans to meet later that day.

  
"She seemed nice." Fred said, happy about their meeting with Buffy. She had expected so many things to go wrong, that maybe being a slayer would make her really mean or that she wouldn't care about finding Angel again or really anything that Fred had been able to think up.

"Yea, but didn't she seem a little, I mean it sounded like she was a bit - -" "Depressed?" Fred said, finishing Gunn's sentence. 

Gunn looked at Fred and smiled as they held hands. "You can finish my thoughts, isn't that only supposed to happen after- -" Gunn noticed that Fred had stopped walking down the sidewalk and saw that she was staring in front of them, with her mouth open. 

"Connor!!!" She yelled when she was able to regain her composure. Gunn followed her gaze and there he was, Connor, sitting on a bench across the street, looking like he was trying to decide something. "Connor!!" Fred screamed again as she let go of Gunn's hand and began to run towards Connor, leaving Gunn to follow her.

Connor became aware of their prescense and jumped up, surprised that they had spotted him. _I hear this is one of the biggest cities in the world and yet I keep running into people that know my father..._ he thought as he quickly stood up from the bench and walked into the crowd of people walking on the sidewalk, hoping that if he could get lost in the crowd before Fred and Gunn caught up to him.

"Do you see him?" Fred asked Gunn who had caught up to her. Fred looked all around her but it seemed that Connor had been able to slip into the crowds so that he could leave without him seeing them.

"No." Gunn said, putting his hands on Fred's shoulders, then leading into a hug. "Don't worry, we'll find him when he wants to be found." He added as he pulled Fred away and looked at her face. Tears were beginning to roll down her face. Gunn could tell that almost more than anything, Fred wanted everyone to be together again....it just seemed like no one else wanted that. 

  
- - - - - 

  
Walking down to the main lobby of the Wolfram & Hart building, Lilah found two people waiting for her, sitting on a bench near the main door. Lilah instantly recognized both of them. Since she had made her little discovery about who her new shadow was, she had been researching on both of them. "Hi." She said, putting on her friendly act as she walked towards the bench, smiling.

Buffy was the first one to stand up, shaking Lilah's hand. "Hi, I'm Buffy, I'm Dawn's sister." She said, assuming that Lilah didn't know everything about her. Lilah was surprised, she knew every little speck of information about the slayer, but even knowing that and now seeing her, she couldn't believe that a slayer, especially one as powerful as Buffy, could be so tiny.

"Hi Miss Summers." Lilah smiled and looked at Dawn who was now standing up, holding a notebook in her hand.

Before Lilah was able to move her eyes from the notebook, Dawn realized that she had been looking at it. "Oh, I'm supposed to take notes on how things are operated and some of the cases that you might handle." Dawn said, trying to sound as cheerful and innocent as possible.

"Right." Lilah said, turning her attention back to Buffy. "Well Miss Summers, Dawn will be in good hands here until you pick her up at, 4 if I'm correct?" Lilah said, acting as though she cared about anything other than the sister being the vampire slayer.

"Yes. Yea." Buffy said to Lilah, then turning to Dawn she said her goodbyes, promising that she wouldn't be late.

To Dawn's surprise, Buffy then began to walk out of the door, hesitating for a moment when a man bumped into her. She turned to look at him but then turned back around and walked out the door, shrugging off whatever she had felt. "Well, Dawn." Lilah said, looking at the teenager. "Why don't we get started." 

  
- - - - - - 

  
How long had it been now? A day? A week? A month? A year? Angel hadn't really been able to tell how long he had been under there. Nor did he even care. It seemed that his brain had stopped functioning altogether, only thinking about Connor. Why Connor would betray him and how anyone would lead him to believe that Angel had killed Holtz.

The thing that he loved more than anything in this world, the only thing that he could love unconditionally, his son, hated him. He hated him more than anything in the world and instead of wanting him dead, which would be enough for most people, Connor....or Stephen, whichever name he would decide to go by, would rather see his father suffer for eternity where no one could reach him... Angel closed his eyes and tried to drift into another dreamless sleep. When he had first been put down there he was immobile inside of his water filled tomb, still dumbfounded over the turn of events, almost not wanting to go back into a world where no one wanted him, where he felt that everyone wanted him gone. 

Cordelia hadn't shown up, if she had then they would have found his car by now and been able to track him. Connor....Connor refused his identity and wanted him dead. 

Who else was there that even cared if he still existed? Who else was there that had ever cared about him...._Buffy._ The name filled his head with images and memories that he had wanted to forget. The feelings that he once had, that he still had for Buffy were different than any feeling he had ever had towards anyone else. He loved Buffy more than anything in the world, even though he had tried to move on, he knew that she had moved on as well.

By the time that Angel had come to his senses and realized that he had to get out of there, he was already too weak from exhaustion and starvation to even attempt to break the tomb. All he wanted to do now was waste away his immortality and sleep.... 

  
- - - - - - 

  
Dawn had made Buffy promise not to embarrass her when they got to the law firm, and she was pretty proud of herself when she was walking out, towards the door of the large law office. A large man, wearing a hooded sweatshirt bumped into Buffy when she had almost made her way out, causing her slayer senses to go into overdrive. She turned around and looked at the man who seemed to be hurrying off towards the elevator. She turned back to face the door, shrugging off whatever she had sensed. It was a law office for god sakes, why would there be a vampire there? 

- - - - - - 

  
**Two Days Later...**

They hadn't been able to find any word on Angel, Cordelia or Connor. Buffy had even called up Xander in Sunnydale and Giles in England to see if they had heard anything from people over there. But it seemed like the vampire with a soul had just vanished. No one had heard of any new attempts to kidnap him and no one certainly knew that it was his own son that had caused him to disappear. Dawn had been having a great time shadowing Lilah, she thought that Lilah was actually very 'hip' in a sense and that she treated Dawn like an adult, not like a baby, which everyone else still did. 

"Buffy, we're not in Sunnydale." Dawn said, almost laughing at her sister. Buffy was still determined to go on a nightly patrol and was now getting ready to go out again.

"We may not be in Sunnydale but I've been in L.A., here, L.A. is where I met my first vampire." Buffy said as she finished putting on her eye makeup and slid a stake up the arm of her sweat shirt.

"Can I come?" Dawn asked.

Buffy sighed, expecting Dawn to ask this sooner or later and since Buffy had been training her every day for the past few weeks she felt that she would be able to take on a vampire or two but..."Dawnie, are you sure there isn't anything on tv that you would rather watch, I could order a movie, you want a movie?"

Buffy hadn't chosen her words that well and saw that her sister was now looking at her with her eyes wide open, her face full of excitement. "Does that mean I can go? No I don't want a movie, I want to be able to go with you!" Dawn almost yelled, really wanting to spend the time with her sister.

"Fine." 

  
- - - - - 

  
Spike made his way down the streets of L.A. with ease. This wasn't the first time he had been to this town, and here no one knew of the chip...or his shiney new soul. That alone made him more confident about striding down the streets. In Sunnydale someone would probably try to pick a fight with him, almost convinced that he had gone to good to even fight back. But here, here they still feared the Big Bad.

"Hey Big boy." Spike saw at least three prostitutes standing on a corner that he was passing, they were all staring at him, cooing him to come to them, to use them. "Want some of this?" They asked him, slightly lifting up their already short skirts.

Almost laughing at the desperate state of the women, Spike stopped and looked at them, in his game face. One of them was so stoned that she didn't even notice and began walking over to him where as the other two ran away screaming. Spike carefully held onto the woman's shoulders and turned her around, pointing her towards a bar that was down the block. Without even realizing that he had turned her around, the woman began walking there, losing any memory of Spike whatsoever.

That's when it hit him. Another memory began surging through his head. 

  
"Hey there girls." Spike had said 10 years earlier at that same corner. High on power, he had walked over to them, leaving his sickly Drusilla at their current home to play with her dolls.

"Hello Handsome." One of them had said, walking up to him, resting her hand on his shoulder as though she was trying to seduce him.

"Hello luv." He had replied cooly, high on the power. Spike had come to L.A. looking for the next girl that would be called to be a slayer. He didn't know her name or what she looked like, but he knew that she was in L.A., and just knowing that he was so close to a kill like that made him feel extremely powerful.

"You want some of this?" The one that was closest had asked.

Looking at her as though he was considering if he could afford them or not, he smiled. "Actually." He said, putting on his game face. "I would."

Thats when he lunged at her, biting into her neck and draining her dry before she could even let out a scream. Then he went onto the others, feasting on their young blood, leaving two for Drusilla. 

  
"No..." Spike quietly said to himself, trying to stop himself from sobbing. He sat down on the curb and put his hands on his head as though he was trying to shake the memory out. "No...." So many people...everywhere, it seemed that he had killed someone almost everywhere he turned.

After ten, probably twenty minutes at most of sobbing, Spike gathered himself up and stood up, wiping away the tears.

He quickly made his way to the Hyperion Hotel, he had heard from Willow that thats where Angel was living and working now, after his old building got blown up. Spike stood at the doors and just before opening up, he realized that he didn't smell is grand-sire anywhere near that building.

Following his 'Sire-sense' Spike turned from the doors of the Hyperion and began to head towards Point Dume. 


	4. Thoughts and Revelations

**A/N:** This chapter really doesn't go anywhere but I wanted to be able to put one in before the weekend was over!! Please review! It may motivate me to actually finish this one :)  
  


**Somewhere in LA  
Chapter 4: Thoughts and Revelations  
By: Hope  
**

  


"Bloody hell." Spike said to himself. He had been following the scent of his grand-sire for the past twenty minutes, only to find himself standing on the beach, facing a very very deep ocean.

"Spike?" Spike jumped back out of shock from hearing the voice. He quickly scanned the area, he hadn't sensed anyone around there before and it was the same now, besides the fact that there was a sodding voice talking to him. He had expected to go crazy from the soul and everything else, but he didn't expect it to happen this soon. "Spike." The voice said again, more urgent.

"Oh great. I'm going to turn into bloody Drusilla with the voi- -"

"Spike."

"Hey, wait a tic. I know that voice." Spike said to himself, trying to place the almost cheery female voice.

"SPIKE." Spike turned to his left and this time he saw this bright light come out of nowhere and then slowly turn into Cordelia Chase.

"Cordelia Chase." Spike said to himself as though he was pleased that he recognized this girl. She was probably the only person in this town that he hadn't hurt. No, Spike didn't remember eating her family or her boy- - -he had been the reason why she was impaled three years ago. He had come back to Sunnydale, drunk and wanting revenge on Dru for leaving him. In the process of doing so he had kidnapped Willow and Xander, who then cheated on and were caught by their significant others. "God!" Spike yelled, grabbing onto his head with his hands, almost forgetting Cordelia's prescense there totally, not to mention the fact that she was glowing. "Is there one bloody person in this world that I didn't hurt." He continued to rave, now kicking the sand, then finding rocks and throwing them as far as he could, trying to release his energy, hoping the memories would leave with them.

"SPIKE." Cordelia said impatiently, watching the blonde vampire kick the sand and talk to himself. After Cordelia said his name a few more times he calmed down, facing her again. He didn't look like he had aged a day since she had last seen him, when he was torturing Angel.

But he _was_ different now, she could sense it. Maybe it was one of those freaky demon powers that she was just finding out she had but if it was or not, she could sense good in him. Spikey here had a soul. "First of all, what are you doing here, second, when the hell did you get a soul, and third, I need your help in getting Angel!"

"Huh?" Spike stood there, dumbfounded that she had seen through him so quickly. How did she know that he had a soul? Was it that obvious? Spike began coming up with random theories in the 5 seconds of silence between them, until he remembered that she had just turned into Cordelia, the form that he recognized at least, from a **light**. 

  
- - - - 

  
Giles sighed as he took his glasses off of his face and began cleaning them, probably for the fifth time that hour. The coven had never kept Willow alone for this long and it was beginning to worry Giles. He and Willow had been in England for the past few weeks. 

The coven had given Giles the powers under only a few conditions, one of them being that they would care for Willow, stripping her of her powers and teaching her how to fit back into society, along with....with punishing her for her actions but no matter where Giles had gone with Willow, she would be punished for the horrible things that she had done in the past few days.

Before they had left, everyone's goodbyes had been short. No one knew how to react to Willow, whether they should still fear her or just pity her. She seemed broken now, her green eyes which were once full of hope and joy, were now empty as though her spirit had been sucked right out of her.

"Mr. Giles." The soft voice interrupted Giles's train of thought. He turned towards the door and put on a weak, greeting smile for the woman. "They're ready to see you now." She said as she opened the door even wider and let him pass through, closing it behind him. 

  
- - - - - - 

  
She had to catch up with him. She could do this. She was strong now and she wasn't going to let this vamp get away just because he had been a marathon runner when he was human and Dawn wasn't sure if she would be able to follow him much longer, her knee had begun to throb out of pain from all of the running.

She clutched the stake tightly in her right hand, making sure not to drop her only weapon. Buffy was a block or so behind her, facing 4 vamps of her own and before she could argue with Dawn about going off to chase a vampire alone, not sure if he had backup or anything else.

He made a sharp right turn into a deserted alley, almost causing Dawn to run right past him but she turned around and ran into the alley, still following him. To her surprise he had stopped about 20 feet in and had her back facing her. 

"Okay...maybe not such a good idea." Dawn said to herself as she slowly walked up to the vamp, hoping that he wasn't aware of her tip-toeing up to him, stake in her arm, ready for the kill.

Slowly sneaking up to him, getting closer with each step, Dawn was thinking of what to do, how to respond to him if he did a certain thing or...

A hand grabbed her neck from behind, lifting her up at least 3 inches from the ground. She dropped her stake and tried desperately to become free of the hand that was now strangling her. As she squealed, the vampire that she had been following turned around and smiled at her attacker. "Told ya I'd get you a slayer." He said, obviously proud of his accomplishment.

"Slayer?" Dawn was able to squeak out, now almost running out of oxygen completely.

"She seems a little weak for a slayer." The vampire that held onto her stated. He threw her against the wall of the alley and walked up to her, examining her. "This isn't a slayer." He said.

The vampire that had been strangling her looked like he was a weight lifter before he was turned. He was very tall, which only added to her fear of him. He turned around and walked over to the other vampire, full of anger. "I told you to get me the slayer, not a kid." He said angrily, slowly walking up to the vampire.

While he was doing this, Dawn searched the ground for her stake, thinking it was her only hope of getting out of the situation without Buffy coming to her rescue. She silently began to crawl over to the stake, which was only 10 feet to her right at most. Right when she grabbed it, four other vamps walked into the alley.

"Get the slayer?" The tallest vampire asked.

"No." Vamp #1 said, now forgetting that he was about to kill the other vampire. "He got the wrong one. He just got us a little girl."

Seeing her chance, Dawn quickly ran up to Vamp #1 and staked him and the marathon running vampire, who was still in shock from seeing the guy he thought was going to kill him turn to dust. Without even turning to see the new vampires, Dawn quickly ran further into the alley, hoping that she would be able to hide.

"C'mon boys!" The lead vampire yelled. "I think we found us some food." They all ran after her. Running further and further, almost reaching the exit, an opening to another main road, Dawn realized that no one was chasing her. 

Dawn stopped running and turned around, not sure what to expect. She had thought without a doubt that the vampires would chase her out into the streets so she was very curious why they had stopped following her. The only thing that she could think of was that Buffy had found them, leading Dawn to run back down into the alley.

When Dawn saw the vampires, there was only one left and it wasnt her sister fighting them. It was a boy. But from what she saw she would think that he was a demon before thinking he was human. He was attacking the vampire at almost lightning quick speed, with punches and blows that looked as strong as a vampire's. 

He kicked the last vamp against the wall and quickly ran up to him and staked him. His eyes searched the alley, spotting Dawn last. Then Dawn saw his face.

"STEPHEN?" She blurted out.

"Dawn?"

Thats when Buffy showed up, assuming that Stephen was now a blood sucking fiend. 

  
- - - - - 

  
Xander put down his construction helmet as the whistle that told all of the workers the day was over went off. He sighed and wiped the sweat off of his forehead with his arm. His crew had been working on rebuilding his old highschool for a week or so now, and they were doing it at an amazing speed.

Xander had tried to convince his employers to have the highschool built somewhere else, trying to tell them that this was a bad area. But when he had done that they ignored him, as most people had a tendency of doing. So Xander had gone along with it, bringing Anya to the site when no one was working there so that she could spit out a few incantations to try and keep the building safe. Xander was in charge of the crew that was working on the library and the surrounding area. He found it kind of ironic. He had helped destroy this place three years ago, and now here he was rebuilding the place where so many things had happened. "Its like, hey look, thats where I ate the school's mascot, thats where a clown attacked me, thats where the cafeteria lady tried to kill me!" He had said to Anya a few days earlier.

He was beginning to patch things up with Anya. He didn't know if they would ever be able to have a relationship like they did before but for Xander, any relationship with her was better than none. It killed him to think about everything that he had done to her, to all of his friends, in the past year. Xander could tell that Anya missed him, almost as much as he missed her. But he had left her standing at the altar. He deserved anything that she did to him....minus her having sex with Spike. They had had a fight about that after Willow left...

Willow...Willow was Xander's best friend ever and it had pained him to see her leave so soon after everything had happened. Giles had promised him, and everyone else, that it was in Willow's best interest that she leave that soon. Xander believed him and promised Willow that he would tell everyone how sorry she was, since she wasn't able to see anyone else, Giles and Anya had been the first people to find them, Buffy and Dawn hadn't arrived until Willow and Giles were already gone...using the last of Giles's magic to teleport to England. Xander wasn't even sure if Dawn had wanted to say goodbye to her, remembering that Willow had threatened to turn Dawn back into the key.

Anya honked the horn of her car, seeing that Xander had stopped walking and was just staring at what would be the school in a few months, probably remembering things that had happened. She took the keys out of the car and got out, walking up to Xander. "C'mon. I closed the Magic box early so I could pick you up. Now lets go." Anya said, not liking to wait.

Xander's car had been in the auto shop for the past few weeks, Xander was hoping that they would be able to just fix it up quickly but it seemed that they were going to take their time so Anya had ended up driving Xander to and from work until his car was fixed. "Yea." Xander said, still looking at the school. He took a breath and looked at Anya, giving her a weak smile. "Sorry." 

  
- - - - - 

  
"Hellooo?" Fred popped her head out of the office and saw Lorne standing at the front door with a suitcase in his left hand. 

He dropped the suitcase and smiled at her as she stepped out of the office and almost ran up to him. "Lorne!!"

"Yea, I'm back." He said as they hugged. He searched the hotel for any signs of Connor. Connor had been the reason why he had left and he wasn't too fond of the idea that he would have to see him again. But according to Fred and Gunn, Angel, Cordelia, *and* Connor had all gone missing, leaving alone. Angel had done so much for Lorne in the past few years, he might have gotten his bar ruined more than Lorne could count but he was still a friend and Lorne liked having friends, especially when they weren't missing. "I'm here to help." 

  
- - - - - 

  
"A son?" Spike laughed after hearing Cordelia's story of how and why Angel was where he was. "And Darla sacrificed herself for him?" Spike continued to laugh at everything that had happened to Angel and the rest of the Fang Gang in the past year. It seemed that Darla, who Spike had remembered as one of the baddest of bads, had also gained part of a soul, her son's...

"Yea, I didn't believe it either." Cordelia said, suddenly remembering why she had begun to talk with Spike. "But the point is, I need you to help me get Angel out!" Cordelia said.

Spike stopped laughing and looked at her. "Alright. Just tell me what to do." "I need you to dive down under and find him. You don't need to breath so that won't be a problem." Cordelia started.

"Wait, wait, wait." Spike interrupted. "How am I supposed to bloody find Peaches?" Spike asked as he looked at Cordelia, waiting for an answer. "Oh yea, thats why you need me." She said, remembering everything that she had gone through in the past few weeks. "I can uh....turn into this light thing and guide you to him, and make sure you don't explode or anything from diving in the wrong way, I'm not too sure how that works with a vampire." She said, mostly to herself. 

"Alright." Spike said as he took off his shirt and shoes, throwing them to the side. Cordelia was still surprised how much he had changed. But one of the things that didn't change about him, that she could sense, was that he was doing all of this for Buffy.


	5. You always hurt the ones you love

**A/N:** Sry but it seems this chapter is the shortest one so far :(, just wanted to be able to get something up before the weekend though, gots a big week ahead. (my birthday!!!) Sorry if the chapter's crappy but reviews on what y'all think would be nice! :)  
  


**Somewhere in L.A.  
Chapter 5: You always hurt the ones you love  
By: Hope**  
  


Angel had become so weak from the lack of blood that he thought that he was beginning to have hallucinations. First he thought he saw a little light swirl around his 'coffin'. The light had origonally reminded him of Tinkerbell from Peter Pan or the green faerie from Moulin Rouge (Lorne had forced everyone in the Fang Gang to watch it with him, while he critiqued everyone's singing.) And now Angel almost laughed at what he thought he saw in front of him. William the bloody was swimming up to Angel's tomb, half naked. He searched all over the box to try and find a way to break it open but then swam away off into the night. Angel passed seeing Spike off as a delusion from hunger until he realized that Spike came back again, only twenty minutes later, and with a large, iron crow bar.

He used it to pry off the large bar that had been welded onto the box when Connor had trapped Angel inside. Angel watched Spike work for ten minutes, still not sure if it was a delusion or not, until the bar came off and Angel fell forward out of the box, too weak to be able to swim up himself.

Spike cursed under his breath in the water as he swiftly grabbed a hold of Angel and carried him to the surface. _Even after being locked underwater, starved for weeks, Peaches still weighs as much as a bloody ox._ Spike thought to himself as he slowly dragged a now unconscious Angel to the surface. 

  
- - - - - - - 

  
Before Connor could react, the slayer hit him with her full strength, which knocked him against the wall of the alley. He wasn't badly injured but he was amazed at the strength that Dawn's sister possessed, but then it hit him. The sister must have been turned into a beast. A beast like his father.

Buffy rushed at Connor, already beginning to pull a stake out of her sleeve. Connor easily dodged the attack, causing Buffy to ram into the wall. Connor turned around and ran up to her, Buffy was already back on her feet but didn't see Connor soon enough. He launched a series of kicks aimed at her chest. To his surprise she was able to dodge half of them and at the last one, grabbed his leg and flipped him over onto the ground.

"Buffy! NO!" Dawn finally screamed as she ran up to Buffy who now had Connor, who was currently unconscious from his head hitting the pavement, pinned down underneath her. Dawn hadn't been able to say anything at first, still amazed at how Conn--er...Stephen fought.

"Dawnie. I have to do this." Buffy said, surprised that Dawn wasn't able to realize that the boy was a vampire. She had never met another human, one that wasn't a slayer at least, that could fight like that, plus he gave her the creeps. Like there was something dark about him and it was the same feeling that she had gotten from Angel so she just knew that there was something abnormal with the boy.

"Buffy, he's NOT a vampire." Dawn said when she reached them. She took off her cross necklace and put it against Connor's hand. "See? Nothing!" Dawn said while she put the necklace back on. "He saved me from this huge gang of vamps!" Dawn stated as she began telling the story of what had happened before Buffy had caught up to Dawn.

"Wow." Buffy said, looking at Connor who still remained unconscious on the floor. "Well no matter what." She said, now looking back at Dawn who was standing in front of Buffy and Connor. "He knows things, and he can fight...." "Like he's not human." Dawn said, finishing her sister's thought.

"Exactly." Buffy said as she bent down to pick Connor up. "Lets bring him back to the hotel, make sure I didn't break anything..." Buffy saw the suddenly worried expression on Dawn's face. "Although I'm almost sure I didn't." Buffy finished, trying to cover-up for what she just said.

With that being said, the two sisters began to make their way back to the hotel. Most of the walk back was in silence, with Connor still unconscious, his limp body being carried in Buffy's arms. Most of the people that they passed in the street would stare at them as they passed, not seeing how such a small girl would be able to carry a teenager that was clearly half a foot taller than her, at least. 

  
- - - - - - 

  
"So I got Peaches out of the bloody water." Spike said. He had pulled Angel out of the water five minutes ago and Cordelia, who Spike now thought of as "the light chick", had been examining Angel ever since, not saying one word to Spike. "Now what?" Spike said, still trying to get Cordelia's attention. Thats when he noticed that she was crying.

She was looking at Angel and although Spike was certain she was happy to see him, she was crying, and Spike was convinced that it wasn't a happy cry. "Cordelia?" Spike asked. 

Cordelia turned around and acknowledged Spike for the first time since he had brought Angel up. "Thank you, Spike." She said as she wiped her tears off of her face. 

"If your so happy to see him then why are you crying, luv?" Spike asked, concerned about her. He walked up to her and reached out his arms to hug her but his arms only hit air. Confused, Spike took a step back and looked at Cordelia again.

"I...I can't stay here." Cordelia said. "I'm a higher being now." She said, now turned completely away from Angel. Spike noticed how much she now cared for Angel. She had cared for him before, but not like this. Maybe it was a special feature that Spike got from his soul, but he could tell that Cordelia now loved and cared for Angel more than almost anything else in the world. Just the way Spike cared for Buffy, it seemed that Cordelia had done the impossible to be able to see her beloved again. "This...this is just an image of what I used to be. I don't exist on this plain anymore, a-according to the higher guys up there." Cordelia said, pointing up.

"Just..." Cordelia continued, now looking at Angel. "Tell him that I love him." She looked back at Spike and forced a weak smile. "I just don't want to hurt him by leaving - -"

"You always hurt the ones you love." Spike said, remembering what he had said to Buffy when she had tried to turn herself into the cops for killing a girl.

"I..." Cordelia said, as though it was now tiring even to speak to him. "The spell's wearing off. I...I have to leave now....goodbye." Cordelia said as she began to shimmer and disapear. "Say hi to Buffy for me!" 

And with that, Cordelia Chase was gone, leaving Spike on the beach with an unconscious Peaches. Spike took a deep breath, it wasn't like he needed it but he had become accustomed to breathing, from being around humans so much. He looked up at the sky. "Now that's something you don't see everyday." He said, admiring how the clouds had turned a light orange as the..."BLOODY HELL!" Spike screamed as he realized his own stupidity. 

He grabbed Angel and ran off the beach and to the first open, abandoned building he could find. He then threw Angel onto the floor and closed the door before any light was able to leak in. Spike then sat down, with his back to the door and put his hands on his head, resting his elbows on his knees. 

Because part of Spike had wished that the sun's light had caught up to him while he was running and ended his miserable un-life right there. Part of Spike was still mourning his victims and wishing death upon the demon that had killed them. 

"Spike." Spike heard Angel say angrily, and before Spike could say anything or do anything to defend himself, Angel attacked. _Oh yea..._ Spike thought to himself in the 5 milliseconds before Angel reached him. _Last time I saw Peaches was when I tortured him..._ Another person that Spike had hurt. Another powerful person, (even in Angel's weak condition) that wanted him dead. Oh joy. 


	6. Revelations - The #1 Overused Title for ...

**A/N:** Ahh! Took me so much longer to post this chapter than almost any other! Very sorry about that, and just to say, reviews are really good motivaters(i can't spell!! AHHH!!) And I would like to explain why I did to Cordelia what I did. As anyone that knows me would know, I was, until very recently, a B/A shipper and refused to believe that anyone else was good enough for the characters. But Spike is a great choice for buffy ;) but still, Angel/Cordelia thing, to me, is yucky yucky yucky! But I don't know how their story in this fic will turn out, it really depends on reviews and what other people I force to read my stories say :). Now i'm done talking.  
  


**Somewhere in L.A.  
Chapter 6: Revelations (over-used, I know.)  
By: Hope  
  
**

"Angel!" Spike yelled as his grand-sire pounced on him. Even with the weak condition that he was in, he was able to knock Spike down on the ground, careful not to knock him through the door, which would result in instant death for both of the vampires. 

But after Angel had succeeded in knocking Spike onto the ground, he began to feel the weakness that had been building up inside of him from the lack of blood and he fell to his knees, unable to stand any longer. 

Spike sat up and wiped the blood from his lips, rather than just licking it up like he would have once done. He stood up and took out a small packet of blood from the pocket of his jacket. He ripped it open with his teeth and while he was tempted to drink from it, he hadn't had anything to eat all night, he knew that Angel needed it more than he did.

Spike looked down on Angel, who was now laying on the floor, without even enough energy to stand on his own. Spike carefully lifted him, with little resistance which had shocked Spike. He leaned Angel against the wall of the old building so that he could sit up. Spike then stuck the open bag of blood in Angel's mouth, tipping it over so that the blood sunk in.

Tasting the blood, Angel already felt his strength begin to return and grabbed the bag out of Spike's hands, greedily drinking it all up. Even before he finished drinking the blood, he felt his strength slowly returning.

Throwing the bag to his side and shifting out of his game face, which he had slipped into while drinking the blood, Angel looked at Spike and realized that there was something different about him. He had taken him out of the water where Angel had been sure he would die, and now Spike was giving Angel blood to drink.

The two sat in silence, studying each other. Angel noticed that Spike seemed a little skinnier than he had been when they last met, his trademark leather jacket was gone and Angel could see Spike's dark roots in his hair. 

Noticing that Angel was staring at his hair, Spike ran a hand through it and gave a weak smile. "Haven't really had time to keep up with it."

"What do you want?" Angel asked Spike. He certainly didn't look like he was there to start a fight but you never knew with the blond vampire.

"Well I origonally came here to talk to you, but then Cor- -" Spike saw Angel tense up. "I mean, I figured out that you were probably under the water, went to your rescue and here we are now." The vampire forced a smile, deciding that he would wait to tell Angel about Cordelia.

Angel looked like he was considering what Spike had just said but then nodded, buying the story. "Well we have a long time until sunset." Angel said. "What did you want to talk about?" 

  
- - - - - 

  
"So are you liking your stay in L.A. so far?" Lilah asked Dawn, beginning to get impatient. The girl hadn't given her any useful information since they had met and it was beginning to get on Lilah's nerves. She was sure that Dawn was beginning to trust her, she had said and done the right things, claimed to feel the same way as Dawn, with everything that Lilah had done, she could have won a friggin oscar.

"Yea, its great." Dawn said without looking up from writing something in her notebook. Lilah hadn't had any cases that day, none that Dawn would have been able to witness without realized Lilah represented demons at least, so she was having Dawn just watch Court TV on her office television and take notes on it. Even though Dawn was writing notes on what was happening on the television in front of her, her mind kept drifting back to Stephen and Buffy, knowing that he had been asleep the whole night, not waking up at all, from what they knew at least. Buffy had literally forced Dawn to go to the internship thingy that day, having to pull her out of the hotel room and to the lobby until Dawn would go of her free will.

"Not a little...dull..." Lilah said, carefully picking her words. "Compared to Sunnydale is it?" She was hoping that Dawn would think that she was being sarcastic. Wolfram and Hart hadn't been able to get any information about the hellmouth other than the slayer still fought there and that they had recently faced a hell god and then one of their own, who had been a powerful witch. "No." Dawn replied instantly. Buffy had warned Dawn repeatdly over the past few days that she shouldn't mention anything about Sunnydale that was remotely abnormal. 

Buffy had developed a theory that the people at Wolfram and Hart were actually the lawyers from social services and that they wanted to get any and all information out of Dawn that they could use to take her away from her sister. Dawn told Buffy that she had spent to much time thinking about it but it wouldn't calm her sister down. Dawn even considered telling Buffy the truth about why she was there.

Dawn hadn't exactly been chosen at random to do this. She had volunteered, almost begged her teacher even, to be given a chance to be able to make up all of the in-completes and failing grades that she had received that year and this was what the school came up with.

Dawn's thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of Lilah's phone. "Lilah Morgan." Lilah said as she picked up the phone, turning away from Dawn who looked curious to see who she was talking to.

"WILLIAM?!!?!" Lilah cursed. Dawn heard the name and was instantly alerted to listen. 

_Spike?_ she thought, now trying carefully to listen to Lilah's conversation.

"Fine. I'll be there in a few minutes." Lilah said quietly, realizing that she had been too loud when she had heard that William the bloody had been spotted and had rescued Angel. 

Luckily, Dawn was able to turn her head back to the television and make it look like she wasn't paying attention to Lilah when she hung up the phone. She didn't know what would happen if she had known she was listening. Especially if it was Spike that she was talking about, how many people were there in the world that were named William... "I'm sorry Dawn." Lilah said tensely as she began putting some papers in her briefcase. "It seems that we'll have to cut this short today." She said. Instead of a smile or anything that Dawn had come to expect from Lilah when she would talk to her, Dawn got a cold stare.

"Ok." Dawn said, relieved that she would be able to go back to the hotel. She wanted to see what had happened with Stephen. 

  
- - - - - - 

  
"Yeah so I thought that he was a vampire but he moved so fast! And his skills were unbelievable." Buffy said. She was on the phone with Xander, filling him in on what had been happening and also asking if anything had happened on the hellmouth since she had left.

"I believed you the first three times you told me Buff, so I'm pretty sure I believe you now." Xander said, smiling to himself. 

Even with all of the terrible things that had happened to her, to all of them, over the past 6 years, deep down inside Buffy was still the same 16 year old girl that he had met. Their conversation had been going fine for almost 15 minutes now, Xander had counted.

They hadn't really been able to talk after Xander had found out what happened between Buffy and Spike and when they had forgiven eachother, Buffy and Tara had been shot, causing Willow to go all evil and end the world-y, not leaving Buffy and Xander much time to talk about anything that didn't have to do with those things. It was good to just talk.

Buffy felt the same way about that. For such a long time she and Xander hadn't been able to just talk, at first it was because of all the secrets that Buffy had been hiding from everyone, then it was because of the fact that the secrets were revealed. Just too many things had been going on since she had come back, that they didn't really have time to work on their friendship.

"...Have you heard from Giles?" And there it was, the question that neither of them had been wanting to hear.

"No..." Xander answered. They hadn't heard from Giles in over a week now and Xander didn't want to tell Buffy this, not wanting to spoil her vacation even more than it already had been, but Xander had tried calling Giles at the number he had left, multiple times, leaving messages. But he hadn't gotten any answers and he was beginning to become even more worried than he origonally was. "Well I've got to go." Xander said. Buffy heard a car honking in the background and assumed that it was Anya's.

"Ok." Buffy said, surprised and depressed by the news that Giles hadn't contacted anyone in Sunnydale since she had left. "Tell Anya 'Hi' for me." Buffy said, hearing a car honking in the background.

"I will." Xander said, "bye."

"Bye." They both hung up the phone, Xander grabbing his keys and walking out the door and Buffy turning around to face an awake and fully alert Stephen.

"Hi." Buffy said to the teenager. She took a step towards him and in response he jumped back to the end of the room, noticing that she was blocking the door. Buffy stopped and put her hands out in a sign of peace. "I'm not going to hurt you....anymore." Buffy added, realizing that his last memory was of her beating the shit out of him. "I thought you were a vampire." She said.

Connor searched the room with his eyes for any trace of Dawn. He was afraid that the girl would have been drained, or worse, turned into a monster. It was then that he noticed that all of the curtains for the windows were open, allowing sunlight to pour into every corner of the room, leaving no area of shade. It was also then when he heard what Dawn's sister had said. She had thought that he was a vampire. "You...know about vampires?" Connor asked, once again looking at Buffy, trying to see if he could find out if she was lying.

"Well its part of the job." She said, taking a step closer to Connor. Connor tensed up again but realized that she really wasn't going to hurt him, and if she was going to kill him, she would have done it while he was out. "I'm a vampire slayer." She said, looking at him like she expected him to know what one was. Buffy rolled her eyes. "Slayer, comma, the." She said, suddenly remembering that she had said the same thing to Riley three years ago. Connor still looked at her like she was mad, obviously never hearing of a vampire slayer before. 

"She who slays vampires?" She asked, trying one more time to jog his memory of ever hearing about a slayer. "Ok." She said, giving up. "Into each generation a Slayer is born, one girl in all the world, a Chosen One, one born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires- -"

"My father hunted vampires." Connor said. Buffy looked at him, realizing the sad tone of his voice when he had mentioned his father.

"Did he?" Buffy asked, moving closer, trying to get through to him.

"A vampire, long time ago. He killed my father's family. He killed them all and left them there..." Tears began to form in Connors eyes as he spoke. "He left them there and arranged them in a horrible way...and he turned his daughter...he turned his little girl." 

By the time Connor was done Buffy's eyes were left wide open. She hadn't known of any other vampires that would be sick enough to do that, or who would have the patience. "I refuse to believe that the beast that did that is my real father. He's a monster!! Angel is a monster!!!" Connor was now sitting on the bed and he began screaming and sobbing. Buffy sat down next to him and hugged him, trying to soothe him. _So this is Connor?_ Buffy thought to herself as she tried her best to calm the boy down. "Its alright, its alright." Buffy told him.

Connor calmed down, stopped crying and pulled away from the comforting hug that Buffy had given him. He looked at her and wiped his tears off of his face with his left arm. She was so different than everyone else that he had met her so far, besides Dawn of course. It felt like she cared for him, even though she had no reason to. She was almost acting like something that Connor was sure he would never have.

A mother. But once he had thought it, the part of his mind that was convinced that the only person he could ever trust was dead began to turn. "Why do you act as though you care?" Connor asked.

Buffy took a moment to consider how she would answer him. It was obvious that he was in a fragile state, emotionally and she didn't know how many lies had been told to him, or what he could take. "Well you see, I have had, what you will call, as the worst year of my life." She gave him a weak smile. "I know what it feels like to be alone. You feel isolated, unwanted, and betrayed." Buffy said as memories of what had happened in the past year began to resurface in her mind.

"Sometimes it may seem that no one cares, and you...you might want to believe that what you were once told holds true." Buffy said, tears now forming in her eyes. "That evil can never love, and that you could never love it back....but..." Buffy looked back at Connor who seemed to be agreeing with every word that she was saying. "People do care, even those that are made out to be evil, or monsters." Buffy gave Connor another weak smile.

"Not all monsters...." Connor said, still unaware that she knew who he was.

"No, Connor, not all - -" Connor looked at Buffy and stood up, slowly backing away from her. 

"You...you...you work for him." He said. 

Buffy quickly stood up, making sure that she was blocking his path to the door. "No, Connor...Stephen, whatever the hell your name is!" Buffy shouted. "You're not the only one that he's hurt during his existence. And that wasn't him that did those things to Holtz. The thing that did that was a demon, a monster like you said. But it wasn't Angel."

Connor looked at Buffy, still considering his options. He wasn't sure if he could believe her but he also knew that he would never be able to make it to the door without her catching him. "Do you want to hear a story?" Buffy asked him. "The unabridged, full-fledged story of Angel and his past?"

"You'll just lie, make him look better." Connor said defiantly, now considering running for the door. 

"No, I won't." Buffy said, noticing that he was looking to run out the door. Buffy stepped aside and sat on the bed, causing Connor to look at her, confused about what she had just done. "You're free to go if you want..." She said, looking at the door then back at the boy. "But this is probably the only chance you'll have to hear about his past, from someone other than him that is." Buffy said honestly.

Connor then began walking to the door and put his hand on the door knob like he was going to open it and leave. But then he turned around and looked at Buffy who was still sitting on the bed. 

"Alright."


	7. Nightmares and Miss Edith

**A/N:**Sorry that the chapter's kinda short! Please review, mght tempt me to make a longer chapter 8 :)  
  


**Somewhere in L.A.  
Chapter 7: Nightmares and Miss Edith  
By: Hope  
**  


She cried out when he went to touch her. He had just been trying to soothe her, to heal her, to help her feel, which was all that he had been able to do for her since she had come back. But now he found that his touch disgusted her and she repelled him, pulling away from his grasp. He didn't realize that she had kicked him across the small bathroom until he heard the tiles crack behind him, his back now stinging in pain. 

He didn't realize what he had done wrong until he looked up at her, confused. Unlike many times before, there was anger on her face but included was a mixture of fear and disgust. That was when he realized what he had just done. He had just done the one thing that couldn't be forgiven. He had done the one thing that would hurt the woman that he loved, more than anything else in the world. 

"Ask me again why I could never love you." She snapped, holding onto her bathrobe tightly, as though her life depended on it. 

Spike stood up, tearing at the eyes. "Oh god. Buffy...." 

"Spike?" Buffy began to fade from Spike's mind as the new voice entered his head. "Spike?" 

Spike opened his eyes and found Angel standing over him. "Just a dream.." Spike said to himself. He had had the same nightmare since even before he had left for Africa. Everytime it would end the way that the real event had ended. 

Spike, shattered and tearing on the bathroom floor and Buffy looking down at him, defiantly. He was surprised that she hadn't killed him right there. "Spike?" Angel asked again, interruping Spike's thoughts. 

Spike stood up and stretched, studying Angel. He had been able to give him another bag of blood, an extra one that Spike had learned to keep in his pocket for when he wouldn't have time to go out and get more blood. It was sort of like his 'just in case'. Angel looked like he had recovered most of his strength, even in that short amount of time. "Yea, Peaches?" Spike asked, mid-yawn. 

"The sun's down, we can go back to the hyperion now." Angel said, anxious to see how everyone had been doing, if they had seen Connor or not. 

"Alright mate." Spike said, picking up the jacket that he had been using as a pillow and putting it on. "Lets go then, shall we?" 

  
- - - - - 

  
Connor stared at Buffy with a look of disbelief on his face. She had just told him the whole story of Angel, or everything she knew at least. Normally Buffy would hold back on a few details, such as her relationship with Angel, which she had done to others, but she felt that Connor had been lied to enough and that it was time he heard something that was true. 

"And please feel free to ask any questions." Buffy concluded. Connor looked up at her, so many questions were swarming in his head and for some reason he felt that he could trust Buffy, that unlike almost everyone else he had ever met in his life, she was telling the truth. 

"H-how were you able to forgive him for what he did to you?" Connor managed to find the one question that Buffy would have a hard time answering. She had known that he would ask it but she didn't expect it to be the first one. 

"It wasn't him." She answered simply, almost horrified at the memories of Angelus flooding back into her head. "It was the demon. The Angel that I had known wasn't the person that did all of those things...." Buffy said, looking at Connor. "The Angel that we both know wasn't the person that did those things to Holtz's family." It seemed that Buffy had hit a nerve in Connor. 

He twitched at the name Holtz. Holtz had been the one that had raised him to be who he was now, he had been the one that protected him from the demons and the other murderous creatures of the hell they were trapped in, but according to Buffy, almost everything that he had ever taught him was wrong. 

It was true that Angelus had murdered his family. But it wasn't true that it was Angel, the one who had taken care of him the first few months of his life, from what Buffy had told him Fred and Gunn had told her. Connor was starting to understand that they were completely different people. "But...the beast killed my fa- -holtz. He killed Holtz." Connor said, remembering when he had found him. 

"How are you sure about that?" Buffy asked him. "Do you know how many vampires there are in this world, in this city?" Buffy asked him. "Besides, why would Angel kill him when Holtz had given him everything that he had wanted?" Connor was silenced by Buffy's words and was now beginning to feel some sympathy for what he had done to Angel. 

A knock came at the door, startling Connor a bit. "Don't worry." Buffy said as she got up off the bed to answer the door. "Its probably just Dawn." It was already past sundown and the only reason why Buffy hadn't gotten worried about Dawn was because of how wrapped up she had gotten in telling her story to Connor. 

She unlocked the door and opened it, expecting to see Dawn standing there, looking annoyed. "Slayer!" But instead of Dawn being there, it was clearly a vampire, already in its game face. 

It rushed up at Buffy and knocked her down and across the room, then entered the hotel room. _Damn. _Buffy thought to herself. _I forgot hotel rooms don't count._

Connor was more prepared than Buffy was and once the demon had walked past him, not paying any attention to him, he kicked the vampire in the back, knocking it across the room and on top of Buffy. 

Buffy quickly kicked it off of her and held it down. "Stakes! Bag! There!" Buffy ordered Connor, pointing to a black duffle bag in the corner of the room. 

Connor jumped over each of the beds and opened the bag, surprised at the contents. Buffy had told him that she was a vampire slayer, someone chosen to fight vampires and other demons but he had no idea that she would carry around so many weapons. She had at least two axes, a sword, three bottles of holy water, crosses, garlic and stakes, almost completely filling the large bag. 

Connor grabbed a suitable stake and tossed it to Buffy. "What are you doing here?" Buffy asked the vampire, pressing the stake down to its chest. 

"I have a message to the slayer." The female vampire growled. 

"Yea well you plan on telling it before I stake you?" Buffy threatened. 

"We have the sister." Buffy was taken aback by the words and the vampire was able to break free of the slayer's grip long enough to push her away and make a run for the door. She made it to the door before she looked down at her chest in confusion before she turned into dust. 

The stake that Buffy had thrown at the vampire fell to the ground, now surrounded by ashes. Buffy walked over and picked it up, then turned to Connor. "Take the bag." Buffy said emotionlessly to Connor. "We're going to go get help." Even though Connor knew who she meant they were going to see, he followed her, due to the fact that he wanted to help Dawn, and that even though he had seen much scarier things in his life, at that moment, Buffy scared the shit out of him. 

She was already halfway down the hall by the time Connor was able to grab the bag and catch up to her. 

They stood in the elevator in complete silence until she pulled what Justine had told Connor was a cell phone out of her pocket and started punching numbers on it. "Xander?" She asked, holding the phone up to her ear. "Come here, now. Bring Anya. Go to the Hyperion, I'll explain when you get here." It was amazing that through the whole thing he didn't believe that she had let her friend Xander say anything besides hello. And her voice had stayed firm and toneless the whole time. 

Maybe there was someone in the world that had gone through more horrible things than Connor had. 

  
- - - - - - 

  
"Dawnie." Dawn's head was filled with pain. She took her hand and rubbed her head, finding that there was a large bump on the back. The last thing that Dawn had remembered was walking out of Wolfram and Hart, then hearing a loud crash noise, followed by a black out. 

Dawn opened her eyes slowly. Realizing that she was sitting down on a large chair. The room was to bright for her and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the light before she saw the person standing in front of her. It was a woman. She had black hair and eyes and wore a red dress that made her skin look even paler than the hair did. "Why hello dearie." The voice said in an almost innocent tone. The woman walked up to Dawn and looked at her, smiling. "I thought you weren't going to wake up." She said. "But she told me you would. She told me that I had to wait." 

"W-w-who?" Dawn asked, terrified. 

"Miss Edith." 

Dawn's eyes widened with fear at the mention of the doll. She had heard about it in many stories from Spike and Buffy, but she had never heard it from these lips before. No, this was the first time she had ever met Drusilla. 

"The nice law people said that you were the sister of the slayer." Drusilla said, looking behind Dawn. Dawn turned her head slightly, afraid to take her eyes off of Drusilla and saw that Drusilla was looking at two large vampires that were guarding the door. 

Dawn looked back up at Drusilla, who looked as though she was studying Dawn. "Your sister's been a naughty girl, Dawnie." Drusilla began to ramble. "You see, she's changed my Spike." She pouted at the memory of seeing Spike last year but then looked back at Dawn and smiled. "But you're going to help me get him back." 

  
- - - - - - 

  
"Hello?" Angel called out as he and Spike entered the Hyperion. They had spent the 20 minute walk in silence. Spike had told Angel his story when they had been waiting in the building for the sun to go down and even though it seemed hard to believe, Angel actually felt like Spike was telling the truth. William the bloody had gotten a soul. 

Angel could tell that he was leaving a few things out. Mostly about his relationship with Buffy. Spike had heard how Angel had reacted with Riley and he didn't have any reason to hate him. Riley and Buffy had had a healthy, normal relationship, so if Angel had heard half the things that had gone on between Spike and Buffy in the past year or so, Spike would most likely be staked right there. 

"Angel?" A voice came from inside of a room behind the counter and was then followed by a head poking out of the door. "Angel!!" The small brunette seemed happy to see Angel and quickly ran out to greet him, not even noticing Spike was there. "Where were you?! You look sick, Gunn!" She turned her head and called to no one in particular. "Get some blood!!!" As soon as she had finished saying that a tall african american man stepped out of another room and walked to a small fridge that was kept behind the counter and began to take bags of blood out and put them in mugs that were placed on top of the fridge. 

The girl looked up at Angel with her large eyes. From what Angel had told Spike what had been happening with him over the last few years, he guessed that that was Fred. 

Finally realizing that Angel hadn't walked into the hotel alone, Fred looked at Spike, then back at Angel, mouthing 'who's that?' 

"I'm a friend of pea- -Angel's here." Spike said. 

"Your british?" Fred asked, noticing the accent. 

"Was once." He answered, his head suddenly filled with memories of his mortal life. He grabbed onto his head in pain and staggered back, now leaning himself against the wall, not able to hold himself up. 

"Fred." Angel said, recognizing what was happening to Spike. It had first happened to Angel when he had gotten his soul. He would be listening to other people talk or he would see something and it would remind him of something he had once done, whether it was in his mortal life or his life as Angelus. The memories would come in headaches that could last anywhere from a few minutes to days. "Get him a mug of blood." Angel ordered. Fred obeyed him and quickly jogged behind the counter to help Gunn put more blood in mugs. 

Angel stood in front of Spike and put his hands on Spike's shoulders. "Its alright Spike. You're just having some memory flashes, the same thing happened to me." Angel attempted to get through to Spike but it was obvious that Spike was now trapped within his own memories, as Angel had once been. 

"Spike?" 

The voice began to fade and seem irrelevant in Spike's mind as he was flooded with images of what had happened after he had first rose. Of how he had gotten the nickname Spike. 

In the distance Spike heard a phone ringing. "Hello?" Fred's voice filled the air. "Buffy! You'll never believe." 

"Buffy!" Spike screamed, suddenly snapping out of his memories. "Sh-she can't see me." 

Spike looked around the room and realized that Fred had just hung up the phone. "She's coming here...she...it sounded like there was something wrong, she said to get together all the weapons we can find." Fred said quietly, finally realizing who Spike was. 

Cordelia had told her about everyone in Sunnydale when Angel had left to meet Buffy after she had come back from the dead. She had described Spike as the peroxide-head vampire who used to only want to torture and kill Buffy, but then ended up falling in love with her before she had died. Fred was pretty sure that Angel didn't know that he loved Buffy. Even though Angel had moved on, to Cordelia nevertheless, he still loved Buffy almost more than anything else in the world and would do anything to protect her. _Cordelia._ Fred thought to herself. _Cordelia's still missing!_

"Cordelia!" Fred yelled, causing everyone to give her their full attention. "You weren't trapped or held hostage or anything with Cordelia?" 

"No." Angel answered, noticing how Spike had tensed up at the mention of Cordelia. "I'm gunna take Spike upstairs so that we won't have to deal with Buffy staking him..." Angel said. "Although it is tempting." He half joked. 

"Oh but Peaches," Spike said, not able to resist. "I'm sure she'll be just thrilled to hear that you have a son." That stopped Angel dead in his tracks. He hadn't told Buffy about Connor. Buffy didn't know that he had slept with Darla. 

"Trust me." A voice came from the front of the Hyperion. Everyone turned to see Buffy standing at the door, Connor next to her, holding a bag of weapons. "She knows." Buffy finished. 


	8. Silent Cries

**A/N:** Hiya! This is going to be the last chapter for a week because I'm going to be going away and the people there obviously haven't caught up to the 21st century and do not own computers :( I will be going through computer withdrawel while everyone *hopefully* reviews the new chapter to my story :D  
  
I would like to Thank Willowfan for helping me with this chapter by pointing out what would be better and what sucks! Thankee :)   
  


**Somewhere in L.A.  
Chapter 8: Silent Cries  
By: Hope**

  
  


Previously, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 

"Trust me." A voice came from the front of the Hyperion. Everyone turned to see Buffy standing at the door, Connor next to her, holding a bag of weapons. "She knows." Buffy finished.

Connor saw, standing near the stairs of the hotel, Angel. Angel had somehow escaped from out under the ocean and was standing not more than 30 feet in front of him. Next to him was a tall, blond vampire, who's hair was gelled back. Connor noticed that he was a vampire, he wasn't breathing. He stared at Buffy as though she was a goddes, with a look of shock and pleasure on his face. Buffy returned his look with a cold stare, causing him to look at the ground and shove his hands in his pockets, a sign of lack of confidence when it came to her. "Someone has Dawn." Buffy said, her tone reminding Spike of what she had sounded like when Glory had taken Dawn.

Dawn was the only family that Buffy had left, and Buffy would rather die than see her suffer. "The lil'bit?" Spike asked, not really believing that something could happen to her, Dawn had been through too much in her young life and she didn't deserve anymore pain.

Buffy ignored Spike's comment and looked up at Angel. "I need you to get to all of your sources in this town. I want to know who has her and where they would keep her." Buffy ordered. "Take Spike with you." She said, not questioning Spike's prescense in the room.

Angel nodded and Connor realized how much power or influence Buffy had over everyone there, Angel and the other vampire the most. Buffy then turned to face Fred and Gunn who were standing by the counter, also shocked at the power Buffy had over Angel. "I need you two to get all the weapons you can find and bring them here." The couple nodded and everyone began to get to work, not asking Buffy any questions of what was going on, but just following her orders.

"What do we do?" Connor asked, once they were the only people in the lobby.

Buffy looked up at him. "We wait." She said as she grabbed the bag from Connor and set it on the floor, slowly taking out all of the weapons and lining them up by size and power. "Go help Fred and Gunn get the weapons, they went down to the basement." Buffy added, wanted some alone time.

Connor nodded his head and followed the path that Fred and Gunn had taken to get down to the basement, not wanting to disagree with the slayer.

Buffy sat down on a bench in the lobby and put her hands on her head, with her elbows resting on her knees. Even though so many things had happened over the last year, even though Buffy had promised Dawn that things would get better, she still managed to get kidnapped. "Now through the smoke, she calls to me. To make my way across the flame, to save the day, or maybe melt away, I guess its all the..." Buffy stopped. The words of the song had been imprinted into her head, maybe as some form of punishment from the demon that had made them all sing. 

Buffy had been so hopeless then. She had wished that the demon would kill her, burn her to death, but Spike had stopped her...

"You don't have to keep doing this alone you know." Buffy stood up and got into battle position, shocked by the voice that had seemed to come from nowhere. In front of Buffy stood a tall green demon with two horns on his forehead. "Mean no harm! Friend of Angel's." Lorne said, holding his hands up in a sign of peace.

Buffy sighed and sat back down, looking at the weapons that were laid out in front of her. "Like I said, sweetie." Lorne continued, sitting down next to the girl. "You don't have to do this alone." Buffy turned and looked at him, with a curious look on her face. "Oh, I'm Lorne." Lorne reached his hand out and smiled, trying to at least get a small smile out of the girl.

"You're the demon that reads minds?" Buffy asked quietly.

Lorne couldn't believe that it was the slayer sitting down beside him. He had heard stories upon stories, from people she had saved and from demons that hated and were eventually killed by her. She was a living legend in the demon world. Vampires feared her more than they feared the sun and demons, who usually would boast about how tough and mighty they were, would cower at the very name of Buffy Summers. But here she was, a small, lost girl who's only thoughts were of how to get her sister back. 

When Lorne had walked into the hotel she had been singing quietly to herself, but even when she stopped singing he could still read her aura. Inside she was crying out, so many things had happened to her and Lorne had been hit with waves of emotion and the closer he got to her, the more it hurt him.

Twenty one years old and she had died twice, sacrificed the one she had loved, lost her mother and more loved ones than she could even count. Her friends had taken her out of heaven, where she had finally found peace, and the only way that she had been able to feel alive was to sleep with someone, who even though she had hated at first, loved her with all of his being.

"That would be me." Lorne answered, looking at Buffy. "Don't worry." Lorne said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "He didn't mean to hurt you. And your sister, you'll find her." Although he didn't know if the last part was true, the first part was completely true.

Buffy looked at him, hoping that she could believe what he was saying was true. The last time she had lost Dawn was to Glory and she had ended up having a total breakdown. She didn't want that to happen again. She wanted things to get better. Buffy was done being addicted to the misery, to the darkness. She was ready to help her sister live a nice, as normal as possible life. Even if she had to kill every other person in the world to pull it off.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the front door creeking. Buffy's head shot up and standing at the door was Spike. He looked surprised that Buffy was still there and on his face was another emotion that Buffy didn't recognize on him. It looked like fear.

"I..uh...Angel..."Was all Spike managed to get out before he gave up and looked down at the ground in shame as he walked into the office, closing the door behind him.

Buffy's eyes remained on the door, using up all of her will power not to follow him into the office and yell at him, stake him, something...

"Thats just a bit odd." Lorne said to himself in confusion. He thought he had sensed a soul on the vampire. But Angel was the only vampire with a soul...

Buffy looked at Lorne with an equally confused face. "Huh?"

"And I present to you." Gunn and Fred showed up, holding as many weapons as they could, interrupting Buffy and Lorne's conversation. They dropped them on the ground and looked at Buffy. "The most amount of bad-ass weapons you'll find." Gunn finished, proud of himself for being able to carry so many weapons After Fred and Gunn began sorting through the weapons, Connor appeared, also carrying about as much or more than it was possible for him to. Buffy got up to help him, blocking his view of Lorne.

When Lorne saw who it was Buffy was helping, he tensed and stood up. "I, have somewhere to go." He said, not making eye contact with Connor. Lorne then walked back out the door to see if he could find anyone that knew anything about where Dawn was being held.

"Good." Buffy said, ignoring Lorne's departure. "This is good." She said, happy with the selection of weapons they had provided her with. She looked up at everyone in the room. "I have to go back to the hotel room...get some more things that I had in my other suitcase."

Buffy began to walk out the door when she realized that Connor was following her. She stopped and turned to face him. "Stay with them." She said kindly.

Fred was amazed at how attached Connor seemed to be to Buffy at the moment. He hadn't been like that with Angel or with anyone, even before he thought they were all evil. "But..." Connor said, beginning to make an argument.

"They'll need you here to start setting things up." Buffy added. Connor hesitated but then nodded, submitting to the slayer's will. Buffy looked back at Fred and Gunn, giving them a look that said 'take care of him.' "I'll be back soon." 

  
- - - - - 

  
Once Buffy had made it back to her hotel room, she didn't even bother to lock or even close the door, but got straight to her purpose. She pulled her suitcase out from under her bed and placed it on top of the bed, quickly unclamping the locks and opening it.

"You don't need an invitation to come in here." Buffy said to Angel, who was standing inside of the doorway to the hotel room.

"I know." He answered quietly, now not sure that he wanted to talk to her. It had been so long since he had seen her and the last time, they had promised that they would only come to eachother when they really needed help.

Buffy was the first woman that Angel had ever loved. When he was a demon he had loved Darla, or what he thought was love at the time. What they had had was a brutal and violent relationship, there wasn't any trust between them but with Buffy, they had built their relationship on trust.

Once, in a time that seemed to take place hundreds of years ago, Angel had been the happiest he ever was. He and Buffy had had the perfect relationship. They would go out patrolling together, they were able to take care of eachother and they loved each other to no end. But then Angel had given into temptation and he and Buffy had slept together, causing him to lose his soul and hurt her almost more than anyone else could.

Angel clenched his teeth at the memories. What he had thought was the day after Buffy's birthday, he had woken up to find her holding a sword, shaken. She looked older than he had remembered, pain and sorrow weighed down on her face. She even looked like she hadn't recognized Angel, as though she had expected a monster.

He should have put things together faster. If he had thought quicker, then maybe Buffy wouldn't of had to suffer so much. Maybe then he wouldn't of had to be sent to hell. Or maybe he was just thinking too much.

He and Buffy's lives were totally different now. He had no idea how she had been since he had last seen her and the only reason why she knew was because Fred and Gunn and told her the story over and over so that they could convince her.

Buffy continued to rummage through her bag as she heard the soft sounds of footsteps on the carpet, slowly coming closer and closer to her until they stopped next to her. She looked up at Angel, who was looking at her, the same way that he always had. He looked upon her with loving eyes.

She searched his face for any change, something that would prove to her that he wasn't the same Angel that she had loved, that in some way she still did love. But a trait of being a vampire is that you never age and Angel hadn't. He was the same as he had been the day she had met him. 

"Buffy..." Angel began, not knowing how to explain any of his actions to the slayer. 

"I don't..." Buffy said interrupting. She closed her eyes for a second, trying to keep it all together. She did not need this. She did not need to lose it here. In front of him. Not again. "Just, Dawn comes first." She said, looking up at her former lover once again. "Then you can tell your side of the story. And I....I can tell you mine." She finished. 

Angel looked at her. He knew that she was hiding something from him. He was always able to tell when she was hurting, when she was vulnerable. Just one of the many traits he got from being a vampire. 

Buffy turned her head back to her bag and continued looking through it. The last year, he had been so swept up in his own redemption, that even when he and Buffy had met, he hadn't been thinking of her. He could have stopped whatever had happened between her and Spike, what had happened with Willow, Anya, Xander, Dawn, he could have stopped it all if he had just paid more attention to what he had seen.

He considered reaching his hand out to touch her shoulder, give her a hug, try to comfort her the way a friend could. But he was never able to do that before and he knew that he still wouldn't be able to do just that. No matter how much he tried to lie to himself. He still loved Buffy.

He turned around and walked to the door. Buffy stopped what she was doing the second that she had realized he was walking away. 

She turned around and saw that he was standing at the door, facing out into the hallway but not taking the final step to leaving the room.

"Angel..." She whispered. He turned around and looked at her. Tears were now flowing freely down her face. Then, as though it was in slow motion, she began to collapse and Angel ran to her side, catching her before she reached the ground. Hugging her, cooing her as she cried her soul out to him.

He had messed up by leaving Sunnydale. He knew that they could never have what they once did, that she had moved on. But he was still going to protect her. He owed her that much. 

"Its alright..." He said as he kissed her forehead and held onto her tightly. "It'll all be fine."


	9. Written in the stars

**A/N:** Ok, So I lied about the no more chapters thing but this is the last one for a week. i was just really bored and its stupid and sucky and stupid! But I'm posting it to make my story look longer :-D This is my version of what happened when Buffy and Angel went to go meet at the Beginning of Season 6 for Buffy and the beginning of Season 3 for Angel. Its a songfic so beware!!!! :D  
  
- - - - -  
  
_I am here to tell you we can never meet again  
Simple really, isn't it, a word or two and then  
A lifetime of not knowing where or how or why or when  
You think of me or speak of me or wonder what befell  
The someone you once loved so long ago so well  
  
_Buffy walked into the small building, closing the door behind her as soon as she entered, making sure not to let any light in. Angel turned around and saw her. She looked the same as he had ever remembered her. Beautiful, graceful with a look of pain and sadness on her face. "Angel..."  
  
_Never wonder what I'll feel as living shuffles by  
You don't have to ask me and I need not reply  
Every moment of my life from now until I die  
I will think or dream of you and fail to understand  
How a perfect love can be confounded out of hand  
  
_Angel rushed towards her, hugging her. She held onto him tightly in return, but didn't release her tears. She had gone far too long without crying over her bad luck, she wasn't going to do it in front of Angel. "Buffy?" Angel looked at her, examined her over, making sure that she was alright. "Are you ok?" Buffy nodded and smiled at him. "I've been better."  
  
_Is it written in the stars  
Are we paying for some crime  
Is that all that we are good for  
Just a stretch of mortal time  
  
_

They spent the next two days telling each other what had happened, each leaving out a detail here or there about their love life, or lack there of. Buffy explained to Angel what had happened with Glory and how her friends brought her back. "...I was in heaven." Buffy said quietly, almost afraid to look up at him. 

Angel just looked at her in disbelief, hardly even knowing what to say. Not knowing anymore how he should react to her.

_Is this God's experiment  
In which we have no say  
In which we're given paradise  
But only for a day  
  
_

While there, Angel came to the realization of how far apart the two had become. He still loved her, more than anything in the world, but they had both changed. They lived in two different worlds and it was Angel's fault. He wished that he had never left Sunnydale when he saw her face, she was still just a little girl. A little girl that he loved with all of his soul.

_Nothing can be altered, there is nothing to decide  
No escape, no change of heart, no anyplace to hide  
You are all I'll ever want, but this I am denied  
Sometimes in my darkest thoughts, I wish I'd never learned  
What it is to be in love and have that love returned  
_  


"If anything ever happens..." Angel began, looking at Buffy. "Call me, I'll come right away. If you **ever** need help." He said.

"I will." She had answered quietly, trying to avoid eye contact. She didn't want to leave. With Angel, she felt, she felt warm, safe, alive. And now the only thing that could ever do that for her was leaving...

So instead of telling him that she needed him. That she didn't want to leave, that she wanted to stay there forever with him, she turned around and walked out the door of the small inn. Never looking back.

_Is it written in the stars  
Are we paying for some crime  
Is that all that we are good for  
Just a stretch of mortal time  
  
Is this God's experiment  
In which we have no say  
In which we're given paradise  
But only for a day....  
  
_- - - - - - **A/N:** Sucky, correct? I just added it in to kinda explain what they were feeling in the previous chapter and i was listening to this song so boom, they fit together! Please review and tell how horrible it is!! 


	10. Bargaining

**A/N:**Hiya! I'm back! Counting down the chapters to the end of the story now :) There will probably be 3-5 more, not too sure though! Please R&R!  
  
**

Somewhere in L.A.  
Chapter 10: Bargaining  
By: Hope

**  
  


"What do you have for me?" Buffy asked as she walked into the Hyperion with a new determination to find Dawn as quickly as possible. 

When they were still in Buffy's hotel room, Angel had gotten a call on his cell phone, and after Buffy had shown him how to answer it he said that he had to go and for her to get to the hyperion as quickly as possible. Buffy had stayed in the room five minutes longer, changing into an outfit more fight-worthy and retrieving her birthday present from Giles.

A hand made, antique crossbow that Giles had had made back in England. He had forgotten to send it to Buffy due to the news that a local coven was sensing that a dark power would soon rise in Sunnydale. He had then spent most of his time researching what would happen, until it was too late, until Willow had fallen back to magic. He had shipped it to Buffy shortly after he had brought Willow back to England with him, along with a note of apology for not being able to say goodbye.

Buffy's eyes widened at the sight in front of her. Lilah Morgan was knocked unconscious and tied up in a chair in the middle of the lobby. "What the hell?" Buffy yelled, causing Lilah to begin to stir. 

Buffy looked at the Fang Gang plus Spike for an explination. "She knows something." Fred said, not realizing that Buffy didn't know anything about Wolfram and Hart.

"She's the lawyer that Dawn's been shadowing!" Buffy yelled while walking up to the chair where Lilah was now awake and looking at her new surroundings.

Spike stepped in front of the chair, blocking Buffy's view of it. "The poof said she knows something and I believe him." Spike said calmly, using all of his willpower not to let the soul take over him and break down in apologies. He looked Buffy in the eyes and to his surprise she didn't kick him or throw him out of the way. She stopped walking and stood in front of him.

"Ok." Buffy said, accepting what he had just said. She may have had issues with Spike, but she knew that he loved Dawn and that whatever he would do would be in her best interest. Buffy turned to face the fang gang who were all sitting down a few feet away from Lilah. "What does she know?" 

  
- - - - - - 

  
"You drive like an old lady." Anya stated. She was beginning to get jumpy, she didn't like having to sit in a car for so long, especially when she could have just teleported to L.A. in less than a second.

"Do not." Xander replied as he put his foot down on the pedal a bit more, noticing he was going kinda slow.

"Thank you." Anya said, looking out the window.

Xander smiled. He was back on talking terms with Anya. Talking that didn't include insults or anything about the wedding.

"We're here!" Xander announced as he pulled over to the side of the road, putting the car in park.

"Finally." Anya muttered. "I was about ready to teleport there." She half-lied. She did hate how long it took to get there, but she enjoyed Xander's company. She could never forgive him for what he did to her, but she felt that maybe she could move past it, if things kept up the way they were that is.

Anya opened her door and stepped out of the car, looking at the big building. Xander walked next to her and followed her gaze to the large hotel. "Wowzers." He said, amazed at how big it was. He had heard that Angel lived in a hotel now, but he figured that it was one of those small, low rent ones.

"C'mon." Anya said, walking up to the doors, Xander right behind her. 

  
- - - - - - 

  
"Stephen?" Justine called, walking into the apartment, carefully closing the door behind her. "Stephen, are you here?" She asked again, surprised that he wasn't home.

There had been times when he wouldn't return for a day or so, but he had never been gone this long before. Justine walked over to the couch, where she bent down and dragged a small duffle bag out from under it.

She placed the bag on the couch and carefully opened it, trying to decide which of the contents she would take with her. She had heard that Angel had been spotted with another vampire, a 'master' one is what the demon had referred to him as. It was very rare that demons would acknowledge vampires for being good at anything, they thought of them as the bottom of the food chain. But this one, along with Angelus, they feared.

So Justine took a stake, quickly slid it up the sleeve of her jacket, she had grown accustomed to wearing the jacket, even in the middle of summer in California. Then she grabbed her knife, Holtz had given her the knife before he had...before he had left with Stephen, it was the knife she had used to slit the englishman's throat. 

She quickly closed the bag up and slid it back under the couch. If Stephen was in trouble, if for any reason he had gone back to the vampire, to Angelus, then she would fight for him. She had promised to protect him, and lucky for her, slaying vampires wasn't that hard. 

  
- - - - - 

  
"They represent demons?" Xander asked, not comprehending everything that had happened to Angel and his friends in the past year. 

"Oh, Xander. Its not that big of a surprise." Anya said, looking at her former lover. "Demons need representation just the same as humans. We have rights too."

While Xander and Anya talked to Gunn and Fred in the lobby, who were filling them in on everything that had happened, Buffy, Spike, Angel and Connor had gone into the office, with Lilah.

"Talk."

"What are they doing? Miss Summers?" Lilah asked, not knowing if they had told Buffy the whole story of Wolfram and Hart. "What? I'm tied up! why are they."

Lilah was interruped when Buffy punched her in the face. Connor looked at Buffy and how she was handling the situation, to him she had been such a sweet person, she had listened to him and convinced him that things would be fine, and now, she was going to beat the shit out of the lawyer.

Connor sensed that Angel was looking at him. Angel had been looking at his son since he had gotten there, but didn't want to say anything. He was afraid that if he tried to approach him now, he would lose him forever. He was even amazed that Buffy had been able to get him there, well he obviously hadn't known that Angel would be back, but getting him to come back to the Hyperion still must have taken alot of convincing...

Angel's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Buffy's fist hitting Lilah's face, again. "Buffy." Angel wanted to say. But Spike had beat him to it.

"She doesn't seem too tough." He said, looking at Lilah, her lip was swollen and blood was dripping down it. "If she knew anything, I think she woulda told by now, pet." He said, looking at Buffy again.

To both Angel and Connor's surprise, Buffy didn't continue to hit her, or even hit Spike. She just stood there and took a breath. "Alright." 

"William the Bloody." Lilah began laughing, but then stopped when the vampire turned to look at her.

"That would be me." He said, struggling to not let the name affect him. When he had first become a vampire, he didn't mind the nickname, but when he had been human it was what haunted him even more than the many rejections that Cecily had given him and the glare he gave her was so intense that she was almost shivering from fear.

She had heard rumors that he had gone soft, helped the slayer and her friends on the hellmouth. But the creature that was standing in front of her, and protecting her, sort of, didn't sound like the 'soft 'n cuddly' Spike she had been hearing about. Although he did seem to show affection for the slayer, and her sister. Lilah didn't know that Dawn had been taken by anyone, but it made sense to her now.

"I'll help you." She said quietly, looking at the slayer. "If you promise to let me go." She said, trying to keep her eyes off of Spike. 

"What do you know?" The slayer asked, walking closer to Lilah, her arms crossed.

"I got a call from one of my sources this morning." She began. "These ropes are really tight." She said, struggling with the ropes that tied her hands to the chair. "Do you think you could--"

"Don't push it." Spike said, beating Buffy to the words. "Now tell us what you know about who has the lil'bit or I swear..." He left the threat hanging.

"I got a call from one of my sources this morning..." She continued, no longer trying to hide her fear. "They said that two vampires, that came from Angelus, that they were back in town."

"Drusilla." Angel said.

"What would she want with Dawn?" Connor asked, speaking for the first time.

"Revenge." Spike answered almost immediately, his eyes fixed on Buffy. 

  
- - - - - 

  
"Now now dearie, don't be rude." Drusilla scolded her doll and turned her to face the wall. "Do you like dolls?" The dark haired vampire asked Dawn, who was sitting in a chair across from her, clearly afraid. But Drusilla hadn't really done anything to Dawn, not anything that Dawn had been expecting at least. 

Dawn had heard stories of what had happened to Drusilla's family, things she had done, but she hadn't expected Drusilla to offer her tea and crumpets and scold her dolls in front of her. Maybe she had forgotten that Dawn was her hostage? "Y-yea." She stuttered, not sure how to answer. "They're great."

Drusilla smiled, pleased by Dawn's answer. "Miss Edith speaks to me. She speaks wonderful whispers." She said, now standing up and walking over to Dawn. Stopping when she was standing directly behind Dawn, Drusilla leaned down, placing her hands on Dawn's shivering shoulders. "They will come to us." She whispered to Dawn. "They will bring my Spike back to me." 

  
- - - - - 

  
"So whats the plan?" Angel asked Buffy, Spike and Connor had gone out into the lobby to join the others.

"We go to the law firm." She started, "and we bring her." She said. Beyond that, she had no idea what they were going to do, or how they were going to find Dawn. "I figured that then you and Spike could use your vamp senses to see if Drusilla's anywhere near there." She shrugged. 

  
- - - - 

  
"Your shirt..." The voice echoed in her mind. Even in sleep she now found that she could get no rest. Whenever she closed her eyes, if only for a second, she would see her face. She didn't understand what was happening, neither had Willow, not at first.

They had just gotten back together, things were supposed to be happy now. Things were supposed to be good....they weren't supposed to fall apart like that.

"Tara...no!" Willow screamed, awaking herself from the nightmare. She was shivering, cold sweat dripping down her face.

"How long has she been like this?" Willow heard a soft voice. First she thought it was her own mind, trying to play tricks on her again, but she was pretty sure this was real.

"Weeks. We haven't been able to get through, we thought that--" The voices were coming from the kitchen, it was Giles talking to someone else.

"I understand. Thanks for calling me." Willow had never thought she would hear that voice again.

"Oz?" Willow whispered to herself, getting up out of bed and walking out the door to greet him.

But when she walked out of the room, she wasn't in Giles's kitchen. She was back in her room in California. She could see herself holding onto Tara, screaming to the gods to bring her back. She was reliving the nightmare.

"No!" She screamed, realizing that along with the body of Tara, Oz's fresh corpse was laying on the other side of the room, his skin looked stretched and worn, as though someone had tried to rip it off.

"Willow?" Willow woke up, crying in Oz's arms. A double dream, something that was becoming quite common for her, but it seemed that part of her dream was right, Oz was there.

"Its so hard." She wailed, holding onto Oz tightly. Besides Tara, he was the only person that she had ever loved. "I just...I just miss her so much, I miss her so much...."

"Shh...." He stroked her hair, trying to calm her down.

"I loved her so much...and she's...she's gone."

"I know what you mean." Oz thought, still hugging Willow.

Giles had called him a week ago, telling him what had happened to Willow and thinking that he might be able to help. He was so happy that he had told him. He knew that Willow would never love him again, the way that he wanted her to, but he couldn't live on knowing that something had happened to her, without helping as much as he could.

As soon as Giles had called Oz, he sold the van and got a ticket to England, he had just arrived there a few hours ago, where Giles updated him on everything that had happened with the coven, with what they wanted to do to Willow, how they thought she would cope. Giles thought that Oz would be one of the only people that would be able to get through to her. Even though Xander, Buffy and everyone else loved her and wanted her to get better, Oz was the only one that sort of knew what she was going through, almost more than Giles or Buffy, who had both lost people that they loved. 

Oz had lost the one woman he would ever love. He had lost Willow. 


	11. REDONE Wolfram and Hart

**Title:** Somewhere in L.A.  
**Author:** Hope  
**E-mail:** xForgottenTearsx@aol.com  
**Webpage:** http://www.geocities.com/delusional_youth   
**Rated:** PG - 13  
**Disclaimer:** I made up my own character! Finally! I am oh so proud!! (Shane!!!) But everyone else belongs to the wonderful mind of Joss Whedon (and Mutant Enemy)  
**Description: **Dawn and Buffy go to L.A. and it must be tuesday 'cause it seems Dawn's in trouble, again. This is a Dawn/Connor story and I know that there hasn't been to much between them yet, what with the kidnapping and all, but there will be, soon :) This is also an S/B story, A/X and F/G :)   
**Author's Note:** Sorry for such the long wait for a chapter and if you haven't notices this is just an extended version of the previous chapter, with a new part added at the end. I was very disapointed with how the last chapter had come out and I apologize about how rushed everything was, I plan to keep it the same but smoother (that make sense?) And I promise promise promise I'll update faster! But you see...for the last two weeks I've been plotting/writing the ending for this beloved story of mine :-D! I really hope It'll turn out good since this will be the first story i've actually finished (go me)I would also like to say that I will, to a certain extent be following season 7 (you'll see what I mean) 

* * *

  
  
  


Flashes. Thoughts. Memories raced through his head, pounding. Pounding away at it like a drum, a terrible drum that beat against his brain, sending him into convulsions. Didn't know what to think. Didn't know where he was. Mother. Mother needed him. He had to get back from the party. Yes, the party. He must have passed out at the party...

Attempting to get up, his head hit a soft coushin above him. He tried opening his eyes, but a terrible pain shot through his entire body. What had happened to him? Why was he there? What had happened to the party..? So many questions filled his head. Too much thinking, his own thoughts began to make his already pounding head's headache elevate into an even worse one. He was always thinking, his mother had said that it would be the end of him. He was so unlike his father, who he had been told was a great war hero. He was the disgrace of the family thinking when he should act, writing when he should speak. He wrote meaningless poetry when he should have been trying to impress Ceci--Cecily. She had rejected him and he had run out of the party into the streets, running into a group of three people that he hadn't recognized. One of them followed him down the alley that led to his home. He did not like taking the main roads, he hated the interaction with the nobles who would just laugh at him. Laugh at the sad image William had become. It hadn't been a good idea to go down the alley that night, though. But he had no other choice, sitting down upon a stack of hay, William once again saw her. The woman came up to him and read his mind. She told him that he was meant for great things, that he saw things that no other could even imagine. And then...

Stupid, ignorant as always he had listened to her, he had...thats when he noticed that he wasn't breathing. He didn't hear his heart beating. He felt no pulse. Forcing his eyes to open, William let out a loud cry, realizing where he must be.

He was dead and in purgatory. Buried six feet underground in a wooden coffin. A sudden feeling that everything was closing in around him overcame William, and he struggled to get his arms up, to break free, through his coffin.

Clawing his way through the dirt, gasping for the air that he no longer needed, William finally found himself free of the coffin. He climbed up out of the hole that he had just dug, staring back down at it in disbelief.

"My sweet William." He looked up in front of him and saw the woman that he believed had done this to him. She stood there, her hands clasped together, smiling like a child that had just been given a present. To his surprise, William was not frightened of her.

Slowly lifting himself up, brushing the dirt off of his suit, William looked at the woman who was almost squealing with delight. "My prince has come." She smiled again, turning her head to her left for a moment, looking to the shadows for permission to come closer to William.

Stepping out from the shadows was the man that William had run into that night...was it that night still? How much time had passed? How long was he gone. The man nodded at the dark-haired woman and she smiled, turning back to William. She took a step towards him and put her hand up to his heart, once again, to his surprise he did not step back in fear, but embraced her touch. 

"Welcome my William, welcome to our family."   


- - - - -   


"One must survive the coming darkness, the apocalyptic battles, a plague brought on by the fiends of hell and once that has been done, the vampire--" Westley stopped midsentence, staring at the ancient text. Unable to believe his error in the translation. When he first translated the text, he had told Angel that it had been very hard for him, cross referencing one dead language with another and that he wasn't even sure if he had gotten it right. And now he knew that he hadn't gotten it right. 

He had only gotten a few words at the end of the prophecy wrong, but those words held the whole purpose or meaning of the text. "And once that has been done, the **vampires** with souls will no longer be of the undead, but of the living." He finished reading to himself, not believing the discovery that he had just made. 

Running out of things to do, Westley had spent the past week reading over all of his texts, looking for anything that might prepare him for what would come next. Without working at Angel Investigations, Westley had hardly anything to do anymore. The most that he had done for them since what Angel thought of as Westley's betrayal, was help Gunn save Fred. When Gunn had first shown up at Westley's apartment that night, Westley had still been full of hope that he would be able to once again join the Fang Gang, ready to open the door and greet Gunn like a friend was when he had come to his senses again. 

They hated him. Cordelia. Angel. Gunn. Fred...they all hated Westley. In fact, the only one that had ever listened to his side of the story was Fred and he was sure that she hated him now as well. The only person he had, as much as he hated to admit it, was the one woman that **he** hated above all others. 

Picking up the phone, Westley quickly dialed a number that he was now often using. "Hello, may I speak with Lilah Morgan?" The englishman asked over the phone. It had been only hours since he had last called her, telling her that Drusilla and Spike had been spotted back in town and now he wanted to see if he would be able to get anything out of her about the shanshu. Something maybe that he didn't know about. 

"I'm sorry, she's not in at the moment." The clerk answered. 

"Hi." A voice said in the background. Westley listened closely, almost instantly recognizing the voice. 

"Excuse me sir, hold on a moment." She lazily replied. "How may I help--?" The clerk obviously asked the girl that had just come up to the counter, looking at her the first time. Stopping mid-sentence, Westley could already picture in his mind what was going on. 

"I'd like to know where Drusilla is." Buffy asked the woman in her sweetest tone, obviously holding a weapon to the poor girl's head. With that, Westley could hear the girl drop the phone on the ground.

Slamming the phone down on the receiver as fast as he could, Westley grabbed his coat, shoving the shanshu papers that he had been working on into his pocket and walking out the door to Wolfram and Hart. 

  
- - - - -   


Connor watched everyone on the way to Wolfram and Hart. He had decided to go in the same car as Buffy and her two friends from Sunnydale. He had known the Fang Gang longer but Lorne had an obvious dislike for the boy and Connor felt safer, no, not safer, more secure around Buffy. Was there even a difference? From what he had been told recently, Angel would use all of his power to make Connor safe, that he had even warded off hundreds of demons from him when he was a baby. But when it came to Angel, he didn't know what to really think. He had also been told that Holtz, his father would take care of him, and make him safe for the rest of his life, that was a lie also though, wasn't it? It was so hard to tell the truth from the endless mass of lies that he had been fed over the years. Even if he didn't know what to believe in anymore, he still believed Buffy. There was just something about her that seemed different than everyone else he had met her. Justine had been nice to him, she had given him shelter and food for the past few weeks but she seemed like she was watching him as much as she was caring for him. She seemed like she was hiding something and Connor believed that Buffy and Dawn weren't hiding anything. Maybe that was the difference?

Holtz had spent Connor's whole life telling him stories about the terrible things that Angelus had done. The things that he had done to Holtz's family, and the families of many other people. He had also been told a countless amount of stories about earth, about how beautiful it is, how bright. But, now that he was back in the dimension he belonged in, one that was full of beautiful things, he wasn't sure if it was just as depressing as the dimension he had grown up in, or even worse.

"Wolfram and Hart." Xander read, pointing to the sign in front of the large building to their right.

"Okay." Buffy said, picking up a bag of weapons, arming herself with a crossbow. "Lets do this." 

  
- - - - - 

  
"Why do you yearn so much to go back?" A voice asked, observing how the new power was standing against the railing of the long balcony, trying to look down on earth.

"Because that's where I'm from!" Cordelia yelled, putting her hands up in frustration.

She had been able to get together enough magical power, along with a favor from Skip who decided he felt pity for the young woman. Was she even considered a woman anymore? Yea, she was still female but she wasn't human. Ignoring the prescense of the other being, Cordelia looked down at herself.

She had spent a day trying to figure out how to assume a human form, and after all of her hard work, she still didn't have the kinks out of it yet. For one thing, she was glowing. She was glowing, **really** bright. Also, after a day had gone by in the form, she started becoming lighter and more transparent. She was afraid that after a while she wouldn't look at all like the way she used to. She couldn't even describe what the other beings there looked like. They would talk to her from time to time, each wondering why she wanted to go back to earth so much. But they really had no form. All they were were big balls of energy and light, a wierd greenish light.

Focusing her attention back on earth, she saw Drusilla take Dawn. She saw Buffy find out, going to the Fang Gang and seeing Spike again for the first time. Cordelia was surprised how everything had happened so quickly. Time probably moved different up here...wherever here was at least. The people here thought of the human dimension as a weak and useless one, they didn't see the point in it. They didn't see the point of love, why it meant so much to humans. Nor did they see the point of living at all if you weren't some big ball of energy. But while looking down at her friends, Cordlia also saw Angel, wanting to go reach out to Connor, to tell him that everything was okay, that he forgave him. But he was too afraid. He didn't want to lose his son forever. In a lot of ways, it really was harder. Human life, un-human life, whatever it was. There were so many thing that you had to go through during your short life span, there was so much hate, so much pain. It was so easy for people to give up, the people that forgot how great the prize was at least. How great the feeling of having someone that you love love you back was. It was worth it, these key people didn't have any idea what they were talking about.

Cordelia cared for angel. She even considered herself as loving him. But now seeing what had been happening...seeing Buffy and Angel's whole relationship from the beginning, what was happening now, feeling what they were feeling, thinking what they were thinking, she just wasn't sure. Angel still loved Buffy. Buffy still loved Angel. But now it wasn't clear what that love was.

Spike had changed his entire existence for Buffy. He had gone from being a demon, one of the scourges of europe, to a vampire with a soul seeking redemption. The most interesting part of all of it was that he had chosen to get his soul, he had even fought for it. Knowing that the woman he loved might even hate him for the rest of her life, he was still willing to go through all the pain...

Only here for a few weeks, and already they had her doubting herself. "Just stop thinking, Cordy." She said to herself. She had been talking to herelf aloud lately. Call it a habit of being human. The people there had found it a bit strange at first, not recognizing that she was simply speaking to herself and not adressing anyone else.

Her thoughts were interrupted when her eyes drifted to another few moments in the future...for them still on 'earth' that is. What she saw was Drusilla sitting at a large dining table, her dolls on top of the table, all lined up neatly. But sitting across from her at the table was a teenage girl, her mouth gagged and her hands tied to the chair. "Dawn?" She asked, once again talking to herself aloud.

She knew Dawn, Dawn was Buffy's sister. She had always known Dawn. Dawn was just another normal girl. Well if that was true, why did she look **exactly** like all the jackasses that Cordelia had been meeting in her new dimension?

"Cordelia?" Cordelia took her eyes off of Dawn, closing the cloud that she had been looking at them.

"Yea?" She asked, turning around to see another one of the light objects approach her, its hands folded in front of it.

She seemed to have her own problems going on up here. Earth would have to wait.

  
- - - - - 

  
"Hi." Buffy said, trying to get the clerk's attention. She was on the phone with someone, her boyfriend probably. Or maybe her family. Her mother? Her sister? Putting herself in an even worse mood with her thoughts, Buffy began to tap her fingers on the desk, the way customers did it at the Double Meat just to piss her off.

"Excuse me sir, hold on a moment." The woman said into the phone as she looked up to see the large group of people that were standing in front of the desk. "How may I help--" She stopped, noticing the relatively large crossbow aimed at her head.

"Yes, I'd like to know where Drusilla is." Buffy asked the woman, still trying to sound as innocent as possible while holding a weapon to someone's head. Looking at the group in front of her, the woman carefully moved her eyes to where the security guards should be standing. But it seemed that both the security cameras and the guards had already been taken out by the new visitors. 

The camera's were ripped in half, some still sparking sparking, almost looking like they were going to light on fire. The security guards were sprawled around the entire main lobby, each knocked unconscious or worse. Her mouth open in fright, the woman dropped the phone in her hand onto the ground.

"Now would be nice." Buffy added, bringing the crossbow closer to the woman's face.

The woman was surprised that she hadn't heard them come in at first. But then again, this was the - "Slayer..." She hissed, changing into her vampire visage. "Oh, so you already know me? Thats real good." Buffy smiled not even blinking at the transformation of what looked like a niave clerk to a taunting vampire, while bringing the crossbow even closer to the woman's face than before. "That means that we can skip introductions then. Bring me to her." She said, her voice growing stern.

Getting up from her desk, while trying as hard as she could to ignore the crossbow that was now aimed at her heart, the vampire led the slayer and her companions to where Drusilla was. "Xander, Anya." Buffy said, motioning for them to stay in the lobby.

"We'll stay too." Fred, Lorne and Gunn offered, holding their weapons up and joining the other two in front of the desk.

"Whats the plan?" Angel asked, now walking beside Buffy.

"I am the plan." She answered, keeping the crossbow aimed at the vampire that was leading them to what Buffy hoped was Drusilla.

"Oh so the usual then?" Angel smiled, memories of Sunnydale flooding through his head.

Walking directly behind them were Connor and Spike, carrying equally large axes. Spike couldn't help but to also smile at Buffy's comment. Even to this day, her determination stunned Spike. He had never met a single person like her before in his life, or un-life.

Maybe thats why he loved her so much? 

  
- - - - - 

  
**Two months earlier...**  
  
Humming away in her ears, whispering their little secrets over and over, softer and softer than before, the faeries awoke her. She now lay awake in her bed, lying between the silk sheets and the smooth comforter that covered her cold body. It must have been at least noon, but she couldn't tell, nor did she care. Dark curtains covered the large windows, blocking all sunlight from making its way into her new home.

Drusilla had never been one to get followers of her own, but when she had run into more vampires in New Mexico, they began to follow her around. They believed that she was a leader, one that they could count on, someone that would help guide them to live over a hundred years. It seemed now that if you were a vampire over 100 years old, you were considered a god among the new fledglings who knew nothing of how to live as a vampire. It seems that vampires had become the rats of the underworld in the last century. The demons blamed them for the slayer. They blamed them for Buffy Summers.

Beginning to once again grow louder, Drusilla picked up on the conversation that the two faeries had been having. When she was still mortal, long before she began to call herself Drusilla, the faeries would speak to her often. They would tell her marvelous stories of heroes, of lands far away. But after Angelus had turned her, after all of her family had been tortured and killed, the faeries no longer liked Drusilla. 

Miss Edith had been a very bad girl since it had happened. She refused to tell Drusilla what she wanted to know, she was keeping secrets from the vampiress, but it seemed that now she didn't know that she was listening. They often didn't know that she was listening, to wrapped up in thair own affairs that they didn't pay attention to the vampire. They hated her yet they were bound to her. They held all the secrets of the world, yet Drusilla was only able to hear a few.

Singing in riddles, the rhymes that they loved to chant over and over, humming in her head like little bluebirds. Drusilla liked blue birds. She always had. "Right from the beginning..."

The vampire got up from her bed, lazily throwing the comforter to the side, now covering the face of the vampire that she had let spend the night with her in her bed. She had gotten lonely since Spike had betrayed her. Since her Spike had chosen the slayer over his own sire. "Dirty slayer..."

"Drusilla?" The male vampire asked, rubbing his eyes. "Where are you going, Dru?" He pressed, now getting up from the bed.

Drusilla was rummaging through her drawers, throwing all of the clothes that didn't please her onto the bed, creating a large pile. "We have to stop it...." 

She began rambling, talking mostly to herself while also talking to the vampire and the faeries that haunted her.

They had told eachother a little secret while they were talking. It wasn't like she couldn't sense it. Everyone could sense it. Something was rising. Something was coming to liberate the demons.

They would have their hell on earth once again. They would have it soon. "Stop what, Drusilla?" The other vampire asked, genuinely concerned. He had taken a liking to her in the last year. While he was still alive, he had been alone, a poor, lonely little boy that knew nothing of the life he could be living. He liked the thought that Drusilla needed him, needed someone. He couldn't understand her half the time, with her inane ramblings and horrific notions. He knew that she saw things. That she could sense things before they happen. But he also knew about Spike. He knew about her childe and he knew about her sire, and the strong influence that they continued to have on her. He also knew that he didn't like that influence. 

"The prophecy, the sneaky little thing, they call to me, the faeries." Dru said, forgetting that she had been looking for something to wear, turning to face the other vampire. "It does want daddy." She said, still mostly talking to herself. "But not just daddy." She quieted, turning around and picking up a red dress.

"What does it want, Drusilla?" Shane asked, making his way towards the other vampire.

"Its her fault." She snapped while slipping the dress on over her pale body. "Whose? Drusilla, your not making sense." Shane reached out to touch her shoulder, causing her to jerk back violently, staring at him with anger filled in her eyes. "They think they can trick me." Drusilla said, buttoning her dress. "But they can't, I know what they want. I know what they want him to have..."

"What?" Shane asked as Drusilla made her way to the door. 

Before stepping out into the hallway, Drusilla turned her head back to Shane. "His soul." 

- - - - -   
  
**A/N:** Did anyone else see 'Lessons'? I'm sorry, i have to add this in! I love Spike, he was so hot in that episode, and then they had everything and the end it was all good (wahoo i did that without spoilers) And also, just because I proclaim my undying love for spike does not mean I will not hurt him beyond the telling of it. Have a nice day! :) please don't forget to review! Those keep me writing 


	12. Confrontations

**Title:** Somewhere in L.A.  
**Author: **Hope  
**E-mail: **xForgottenTearsx@aol.com  
**Webpage: **http://www.geocities.com/delusional_youth   
**Rated: **PG - 13  
**Disclaimer:** I made up my own character! Finally! I am oh so proud!! (Shane!!!) But everyone else belongs to the wonderful mind of Joss Whedon (and Mutant Enemy)  
**Description:** This is a Dawn/Connor story, Buffy/Spike story, Fred/Gunn, Xander/Anya and unless I go **completely** insane there will be no Angel/Cordy, there will be a friendship at most. Buffy and Dawn go to L.A. so that Dawn can complete something for school. Chaos ensues. This story contains everything from the Shanshu to Mr. Shifty! Please read and review :) I'd also like to thank everyone for the wonderful reviews. I'm so sorry that I haven't been able to update the story in so long, but my computer had crashed and I lost everything so i had to get all of my files back up and running before I even thought about FF.N. Next chapter is expected to be up by Wed. :)  
  


* * *

  


"Shane." The female vampire that had been leading the slayer and her team to Drusilla's room called. 

Turning away from the vampire, Shane walked over to Drusilla, placing a hand on her bare shoulder. "They're here." He whispered. 

The vampiress turned to face him. A dark smile was spread upon her lips, she had known that they were coming. They had gotten the perfect bait. Now she would be able to stop it from happening. She wouldn't let the filth infest her darling childe as it had Angelus. 

For once, she knew what she was doing. "Lets bring them in then." She smiled, pushing Shane away and walking towards the front of the room. 

Shane moved his hand, signaling the two vampires to open up the doors in front of them. 

Standing int he middle of the hallway, he first saw a young girl in her early twenties with a crossbow to the clerk's heart. She must have been the slayer. She had long blonde hair that flowed over her shoulders, a pale blue blouse that matched her blue jean hiphuggers. She was prettier than the last slayer. 

To her left was a tall man, vampire. He had dark brown hair and brown eyes that were full of sadness, depression. He carried only a sword in his right hand. To his left was a teenage boy, no older than the girl that they had taken captive. But there was something strange about this child. He carried a battle axe in his arms and was searching the room for the girl, while at the same time staying aware of who was in front of him. 

To the right of the slayer was the man that Shane did not want to meet. The reason why he had been forced to come there. William the bloody. His roots showing from his usually platinum blonde hair, the vampire was only armed with a stake. "Hello, my pet." Drusilla said, taking two steps in front of Shane, walking towards Spike." 

"Hello, Dru." Spike said, scanning the room for Dawn. 

"Are you looking for the little girl?" She asked, sounding as innocent as she had once been before she was a vampire. 

"Yea, dru. That would be why we're here." He said sarcastically. Looking to his left to see Buffy extremely agitated and ready to take on the whole nest of vampires herself, Spike looked back at Drusilla. "Show her to us, Dru. Show us the lil' bit." 

"Is that what you call her?" Drusilla asked Spike, now walking back over to Shane, whispering something into his ear. 

The vampire nodded at her silent request and walked over to a door located in the back of the room and opened it. Pulling out the girl that had been locked inside, Shane shoved Dawn onto the ground with great force. 

"Dawn!" Buffy and Connor yelled at the same time. But while Connor stayed next to his father, Buffy ran over to Dawn, helping her up and checking to see that she was okay. 

"Buffy!" A muffled sound came from Dawn's mouth as Buffy attempted to take out the hankerchief. 

Once she had been able to get it out of her sister's mouth, Angel, Connor and Spike had joined Buffy, surrounding her and Dawn. "Dawn, what is it? Are you alright? What happened? We're going to kill her." Buffy began to ramble as everyone forgot about the 10 + vampires in the same room as them. 

"NO! We have to leave!" Dawn yelled, looking at her sister. "She wants you." She said, looking at Spike. "We can't let her get you. We can't let her get either of you!" She raged. 

Thats when the other vampires attacked. 

  
- - - - -   


"Wonder how they're doing in there..." Xander wondered aloud, looking down the hallway that they had disappeared into only minutes ago. 

"They're fine." Fred said, looking over all the monitors that were located behind the desk. "They're kind of just standing there, really." She said, studying the screen with the picture of the room that the slayer and her companions were located in. 

"I don't like standing here, playing guard!" Xander yelled, worried about his friends. He didnt' care what the security camera said about what was happening. He had a feeling that something was going to happen soon, something bad. 

Well the feeling was probably just his extreme case of paranoia but hey, living on the hellmouth had taught the 21 year old construction worker to trust his paranoia. "Neither do I." Anya said, studying her shoes with a frown on her face. 

"What do you think of these shoes?" She asked Lorne who was sitting in a chair next to her. 

"Designer, very expensive, but just don't work with the outfit." He replied bluntly. He had something against vengeance demons. One of them had turned his friend Charley into a chaos demon, something that was *not* pleasant to look at. 

"Yea, I'm going to go change. Be back in a sec!" Anya said, disapearing with a flash. 

"What the..." 

"Hell?" Gunn finished Fred's sentence, staring in awe at the place where Anya had just been standing. 

"She's a vengeance demon." Xander replied thoughtlessly while continuing to pace back and forth. 

"Oh, now that explains it." Gunn replied, still confused. 

"Guys!" Fred yelled, staring at the monitor. "I think they need our help!" She yelled again, picking up a crossbow and running down the hall. Xander was already halfway down when Gunn and Lorne had begun to follow them, desperately trying to catch up. 

"There we go!" Anya said cheerfully, appearing back in the lobby of Wolfram and Hart. "Much better..." She said, looking around noticing that everyone was gone. "Where'd they go..." 

  
- - - - -   


"Wow." Willow replied to Oz's story. "Thats like...you've been to Japan! I've always wanted to go to Japan." She laughed, twisting the piece of grass in her hands. 

"Yeah." Oz said. "Pretty cool over there." He hadn't realized how much he had missed Willow over the last three years. It seemed that no matter how much she had claimed to change, even if she had killed a person, she was still Willow. 

"When I was in highschool I planned on moving to Japan, I wanted to work for the guys that make those games, Final Fantasy....did I mention this was when I was still in highschool?" Willow asked, feeling slightly embarrassed. She knew that she could say anything to Oz and she loved him for it. Loved him? Yes, she did love him, but not the way she once thought she did. She had loved Tara, she still loved Tara. 

When they had first gotten involved, Willow didn't know what she was doing. There had been so many thoughts and emotions running through her head that she wasn't even sure what she had wanted. But unlike Buffy and Xander, who now had their own lives and their own lovers, Willow was alone and Tara was there to help her. 

Tara had always been there for her. But no, Willow wasn't able to be there. She had failed Tara, just like she failed everyone else. 

"Willow?" Oz asked, realizing that Willow had grown quiet and her hands were digging into the grass in front of her. The grass was turning black, as though it had been burnt. 

"GILES!" Oz yelled, afraid to move. "Giles! Someone! Help!!" He yelled again, this time standing up and cupping his hands in front of his mouth to help his voice travel further. 

Crouching back down next to her, Oz grabbed onto Willow's shoulders. "Willow." He said trying to calm both of them down. Fur was beginning to appear on his hands, but then changed back to normal. 

"What happened!" Giles asked, running over to Oz and Willow with three members of the coven following. 

"We were, we were talking and then...." He said. 

"Willow?" Giles asked, sitting next to her as Oz stood up, looking down on her helpless.

"I failed her Giles...I failed...I don't want to fail again!" Willow cried, when the touch of her hands left the ground, it appeared as it had before she had touched it. The grass was now green, as it had been before it touched it. It was no longer the black scorched color.

"No, no you didnt." He said calmly, hugging her and letting her let her pain out.

It seemed she still had a long way to go in order to recover. 

  
- - - - - 

  
"Hello?" Anya asked again, unable to accept that they had just left her there. "Well why of **course** they just left me here!" She said to herself, realizing her ignorance. "He left me at the altar, why not just leave me at Wolfram and frickin Hart."

"Hello?"

Noticing the man now standing in front of the doors in the front of the lobby, Anya turned to face him in order to give him her full attention. "Excuse me, I'm in the middle of a panic attack here and I'm pretty sure that there are a bunch of vampires getting slayed down the hall!" Realizing what she had just said. "Thats it! They're over there!" Anya exclaimed, figuring out why they had left. "By the way, we're closed." Anya said while disapearing.

After Anya had disapeared from Westley's sight, he stood there for a moment to try and figure out what had just happened. "Xander picks the strangest women..." He muttered under his breathe as he ran off into the direction where all of the noise was coming from. 

It was a wonder that Anya hadn't heard all of the fighting from where she was standing, Westley had been able to hear it from outside. 


End file.
